


Stolen Alien

by Jongdaesdimple



Category: EXO (Band), TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alien Abduction, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Aliens, Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Police, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic Fluff, Flirty Byun Baekhyun, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Idk why but I keep bringing up marriage, Kidnapping, M/M, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Orphans, Past Relationship(s), Smuggling, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:07:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 23,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22904461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jongdaesdimple/pseuds/Jongdaesdimple
Summary: Baekhyun has always wanted to be a private investigator, he just never thought it would take being caught up in a smuggling case on an alien planet to be one.This story is kinda a police story that just happens to be on an alien planet. Hope you all enjoy! I'll be uploading one chapter every day!
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Do Kyungsoo | D.O
Comments: 12
Kudos: 43





	1. A Sunny Day in Paradise/Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I’d like to start by thanking my friend M for helping me write this and she was the one who named the planet and picked the title of the fic cause she liked how it rhymed. This is my first time writing mystery/police stuff so bear with me here. 
> 
> Also, I’m leaving Baekhyun’s name as Byun Baekhyun even though he’s American (born and raised) and it should technically be the other way around because I just can’t see him as *whispers* Baekhyun Byun.

It’s not that Baekhyun hates his life, it’s just not really the life he wants. What he wants is to be a private investigator with a nice house maybe a husband and kids. What he has is a shit basement apartment with one window, an awful job at a movie theatre with homophobic AND racist coworkers and no love life at all. Ok maybe Baekhyun hates his life but it’s the one he has, for now anyways. Every paycheck he sets aside a little for his P.I. licence and after working at the theatre full time for 9 years he’s officially 80% finished his savings goals. That money should be enough for not only the licence but rent for an office for a year as well as office supplies and the equipment he’ll need. He has it all planned out, down to the extravagant exit from the theatre once he can finally quit. 

“Yo Kim we need more popcorn” One of Baekhyun’s lovely co-workers, Kyle yells “Use your dumbass detective skills to go find another bag.” 

“It’s Byun” Baekhyun repeats even though no matter how many times he says it, they’ll never listen. 

“Whatever just get it” Kyle brushes off. 

Baekhyun sighs and walks towards the storage unit to get another pack of unpopped popcorn. Kyle is the first person Baekhyun will flip off when he finally gets to leave. At least in 20 minutes after his break, he’ll be on cash which means his co-workers won’t talk to him much. 

Baekhyun leaves the storage room with the pack of popcorn and hands it to Kyle. 

“Here” Baekhyun mumbles before walking towards the break room. 

“Baekhyun!” Baekhyun hears his manager call. 

“Yes, sir?” Baekhyun says to a boy who is most definitely several years younger than him. 

“I need you to show Angela around, she’s our new employee” His manager says with a smile. 

Baekhyun looks at the petite woman -or girl rather, she’s probably 16 or so- in front of him. She has blonde curly hair, makeup all done up and a uniform that’s probably one size too small to make her hourglass figure particularly obvious. Baekhyun looks back at his manager and realizes he probably didn’t even look at her resume before hiring her. He sighs but smiles at the girl, it’s not like she’s done anything wrong. 

“I’m Byun Baekhyun, I was just going on break but I guess I’ll show you around first” Baekhyun says to the girl. 

“He’s the one who’s been working here the longest but he’s never gotten promoted, isn’t that funny?” His manager belittles, Angela laughs but it’s clear by her body language that she doesn’t find it funny. 

“We can start with the storage room” Baekhyun says letting Angela escape from his asshole of a manager. 

“Good idea and that’s back there?” Angela asks, pointing at the door. 

“Yup!” Baekhyun nods “Alright bye Nick!”

Baekhyun swiftly leaves and feels ten times better once he’s not in the same room as his boss. 

“Don’t worry about me perving on you or anything I don’t swing that way” Baekhyun says to help Angela feel a bit better. 

“Thanks” Angela smiles “Your boss is a little...”

“Creepy? Yeah, if you have the chance I’d say run while you can.” Baekhyun answers “Better yet, sue him.”

“I only need this job for a month” Angela admits “I need some money for my prom dress.” 

“I thought they only signed on people for 3 months at least” Baekhyun responds. 

“Yeah um I haven’t told them I’m planning on quitting and I checked with the labour laws, they can’t force me to stay if I give my two weeks notice” Angela smirks. 

“Very sneaky” Baekhyun laughs “well I guess I should get on with the tour.”

Baekhyun shows her the basics, everything she’ll be working with. Storage, popcorn, hot dogs, drinks and frozen yogurt. She'll probably go over how to use the tell next week. Once the tour is over Baekhyun is excited to take his break finally. Although it is nice to know he’ll have a coworker who isn’t a dick, for a month anyway. 

“And that’s everything.” Baekhyun nods “I’m not sure when they’ll do your more in-depth training, we’ve kind of got all the hours for the next two weeks booked.”

“That’s weird because Nick told me I’m starting today” Angela answers. 

“Oh, there you are!” Nick says approaching Baekhyun and Angela “Are you done the basic training?”

“Yeah, I showed her all the basics” Baekhyun answers. 

“Great! Well, Baekhyun that’s all we need from you, you can go home now.” His manager smiles in the creepiest fakest way humanly possible. 

“I have another 4-hour shift for today” Baekhyun corrects him. 

“Right but Angela will be taking your shift.” Nick answers “Oh wait sorry did I forget to mention you’re fired?”

“Fired?” Baekhyun asks astonished “Why?” 

“Ummm you’re always late to work? Or you’re rude to customers? I don’t really care, I wrote something on the paperwork but yeah you’re fired.” Nick smiles as if this were a joke. 

“You had him train his own replacement?” Angela says catching on. 

“It seemed smart, who better to train you than the person who did the job before you” Nick says thinking he’s smart. 

Baekhyun’s mind is racing with thoughts and none of them are family-friendly. Should he just go ahead and do what he planned for when he was supposed to quit? Wait no he can’t because he might need this dick head’s recommendation when he finds a new job. God, he’ll need a new job. 

“Just give us your uniform back within the week” Nick says. 

Baekhyun in a fit of anger takes his shirt off right there and throws it at Nick. Baekhyun walks out from behind the counter not even looking back. That’s the best “fuck you” he can do right now. 

Baekhyun didn’t really think that through, he’s now outside in public and completely shirtless. Not that he’s ashamed, he doesn’t work out every day for nothing, but he’s pretty sure the “no shirt no service” rule applies to the bus so he opts to call an Uber instead. Hopefully, the driver won’t ask any questions. 

Luckily when the driver arrives it seems like she could care less. He gives her his address and before he knows it he's back in his shitty tiny basement studio apartment. It has a drain in the middle of the room. A real honest to god drain. Baekhyun falls onto his bed and just tries to process what happened. He’s jobless. It’s not even like he can ask his family for money because he doesn’t have one. One of the lovely benefits of being abandoned in front of an orphanage with nothing but a name tag. Not even his foster homes would give him any help anymore. He’s 27 and none of them would probably even remember him. 

Baekhyun sighs and tries to forget his life. Just for even a minute. Just tries to picture a life that he could have. One where he has money to spend. Maybe he’s the son of a CEO. Maybe he’s supposed to take over the family business but all he wants to do is go out and drink, hook up with anyone he wants. For one night Baekhyun’s going to be that guy. Tomorrow he can cry over losing his shit job and try to find a new one but for today he’s gonna go and get drunk. 

Baekhyun finds a shirt that looks good enough and puts it on. His black work pants should be fine but he decides to put on his favourite skinny jeans anyways. Might as well fully commit to this fake rich personality with a pair of fake designer jeans. 

Baekhyun might be a bit old for this but it doesn’t matter at this point. He puts on some eyeliner on and leaves his place. He finds a bar within his price range and walks there. He might even find someone who will pay for his drinks. 

Baekhyun has been to this bar before, it has a friendly enough atmosphere with a nice little pride flag on the door to prove it’s LGBT friendly. Inside it’s nothing special, there’s a lot of wood and the lighting is dim. It's a pretty stereotypical bar. 

“Hi, I’ll get...” Baekhyun says looking over the menu “a Manhattan.”

“Great choice” the bartender responds. 

While he waits, Baekhyun looks around the room. There are a few guys who catch his eye. If Baekhyun’s lucky at least one of them will be into him. There’s a black-haired guy, average build, he has glasses which makes him look pretty cute. That would usually be Baekhyun’s type but not tonight because tonight he’s not looking for any kind of relationship. The second guy is short based on how his feet dangle from the barstool. Baekhyun has nothing against short guys, height differences can be nice but not necessary. He also has light lavender hair, recently dyed probably since no roots are showing. He’s wearing an expensive wool sweater. Baekhyun knows the brand and even their cheapest sweaters are $200. The guy’s probably well off which would be perfect for Baekhyun’s little fantasy. And the last guy has blond hair and a cute little button nose and... he’s Baekhyun’s ex. Wonderful, his day gets better. 

“Here you go” the bartender says handing him the drink. 

Maybe he could hook up with the bartender. He’s not bad looking, he has a pretty nice voice and he’s polite. Baekhyun’s thoughts are interrupted when he feels a little static shock on his shoulder. 

“Oh sorry about that, must be the wool” the lavender haired man says taking his hand away from Baekhyun’s shoulder “I was just going to ask if his seat was taken.” 

“Nope” Baekhyun smiles, looks like he won’t be going home alone tonight. Hopefully, he won’t go to his home at all. “It’s free.”

“I haven’t seen you around here before” The man smiles “I’m Jeongho.”

“You’re Korean too? Well I mean I don’t know if I’m Korean I guess, but my name is” Baekhyun says pressing his lips together realizing he blew his whole “rich CEO son” story. Real smooth. “I’m Baekhyun and I’ve only been here a few times.”

“Well, Baekhyun can I buy you a drink?” Jeongho asks. 

“I’d like that yeah” Baekhyun smiles, at least the guy is still interested. 

“Bartender, can I get two shots of whatever you recommend?” Jeongho asks. 

“Shots?” Baekhyun questions with a smirk “I’m not gonna lie I wasn’t expecting that.”

“I’m full of surprises” Jeongho says putting a hand on Baekhyun’s mid-thigh “I’m not being too forward am I?”

“Not at all” Baekhyun smiles. 

“Your drinks” the bartender says putting them in front of Jeongho. Jeongho hands one to Baekhyun and they both drink them. 

The more Baekhyun talks to Jeongho the more Baekhyun is interested. Jeongho is pretty clear that he’s just looking for a hookup so Baekhyun is happy. The only thing is he feels a little drunker than he thought he would be after only two drinks. His brain feels fuzzy and it takes him too many seconds to realize he’s making out with Jeongho. Luckily his body seems to know what’s going on otherwise, that would have been awkward. Jeongho pulls away from the kiss to whisper into Baekhyun’s ear. 

“My place or yours?”

“Yours” Baekhyun stutters out in a voice that seems way too fragile to be his own. 

“Perfect” Jeongho whispers before kissing just under Baekhyun’s ear. 

The drive to Jeongho’s place is a blur. He remembers some laughing a lot of touching and then falling onto a super soft bed. So soft that Baekhyun wanted to fall asleep on it. Maybe he did. 


	2. Into The World

When Baekhyun wakes up the next day everything hurts. His neck hurts, his back hurts and his head is pounding. How much did he drink? Baekhyun tried to get comfortable as he gains consciousness but he realizes he can’t move much. His neck is angled weirdly and his legs are bunched up. When he tries to move them there’s something in the way. 

Baekhyun quickly realizes something’s not ok and opens his eyes to investigate but he can’t see. Everything is black. Baekhyun starts to freak out because he knows his eyes are open but he really can’t see anything at all. Is he blind? What is going on? He tries to feel around his surroundings and feels nothing but a smooth almost hard plastic-like substance. He’s in a box, trapped in a box. Baekhyun pushes on the walls of the box to try to get free. There’s no way he’s going to allow himself to be kidnapped. No one would even care enough to look for him. 

None of the walls move but Baekhyun hears a sound like footsteps approach the box. He quickly stops pounding on the walls and holds his breath in fear. 

“He’s awake?” Baekhyun hears a voice. 

“Zap him then” Baekhyun hears a different voice respond. 

They don’t say anything else and the footsteps stop but Baekhyun hears a sliding noise and then finally he sees something other than darkness. There’s a small silver looking object sticking out of the box wall his feet are pushed up against. There’s also a very faint light blue light in the middle of the metal object. Suddenly the light flashes rapidly and Baekhyun feels like the world’s gravity has flipped, everything feels wrong. His head feels heavy and so do his eyelids. Soon he’s lulled back to sleep. 

This time Baekhyun wakes up when bright white light seeps into his eyes. He shuts them tightly to stop it before realizing he must be free of the box. Baekhyun forces his eyes open which immediately makes them tear up due to bright light. He’s not tied up at all which makes him feel a lot less stressed.

Once Baekhyun’s eyes adjust to the light he sees a nice-looking young woman in the room. She has round eyes, bangs, and pastel pink hair that is tied up in a nice but professional ponytail. She’s wearing a suit and she has a badge so Baekhyun realizes he must have been rescued by the police. He smiles knowing he’s safe now. 

“Hello my name is Park Jihyo but you can call me Jihyo” Jihyo smiles “I’m a therapist and I’ve been assigned to you to help you adjust.”

“Adjust? Honestly, I’d prefer to just forget about the whole kidnapping thing” Baekhyun sighs “I know repressing “isn’t a healthy coping mechanism” but I don’t care. I don’t need therapy I can’t afford, I want to go home.”

“Right” Jihyo takes a breath before putting on a smile “This might be hard to swallow but you can’t go home. Ever. You’re on a planet called Uralium, someone smuggled you here even though it’s illegal to take humans from earth. Lucky for you, detective Do got a hold of your shipment crate and will be trying to help you with your new life here.”

“I’m on an alien planet?” Baekhyun asks not buying, Jihyo nods “That happens to have English speaking humans?”

“We look very similar to humans but I assure we are not” Jihyo answers “Your smuggler seems to have outfitted you with a translator, that’s why you can talk to me. Do you remember being shocked the day you were captured?”

“I-” Baekhyun says trying to remember but for some reason, everything feels fuzzy “I don’t know I can’t remember. I remember going to a bar and then... I think I met someone... the next thing I remember is being in a box and something blue zapping me.”

“That’s unfortunate” Jihyo sighs “It sounds like they drugged you, but that’s for the detective to deal with. I’d just like to focus on comfortably getting you used to the idea of not being on earth.”

“Listen if I believed you, I wouldn’t need therapy.” Baekhyun answers “I had nothing on earth, no family, no friends and I just got fired from my job. Living on a new planet would be a blessing.”

“I’m glad to hear that” Jihyo smiles “I’ll give you a little pamphlet with some important information about uralis, that’s us. Now you can take some time with this but I also have some paperwork for you to sign, I’m sorry I have to give you so much information at once but at least it will be done and out of the way.”

Baekhyun takes the little paper pamphlet with the title “So you’ve been abducted”. He laughs at the dumb title and looks through it briefly. There’s some information on the inside that describes this “alien planet” and society but Baekhyun doesn’t bother really looking at it. As much as he’d like to believe he’s no longer on earth, the chance that he’s actually on an alien planet is just ridiculously small. 

“I understand if you still don’t believe what I’m saying so I have an idea.” Jihyo says when Baekhyun puts the pamphlet on the table in front of them “We can take a little walk and then we’ll reevaluate the idea of being on an alien planet.”

“Ok” Baekhyun nods. 

He stands up out of his chair. Jihyo walks towards the door and pushes on a button beside it. 

“This is Park Jihyo, I need the authorization to bring the human to the garden” Jihyo says, most probably into a microphone Baekhyun can’t see. 

“Why?” A voice answers through a speaker Baekhyun also can’t see. 

“Captain we’ve talked about this, humans don’t believe they’re on an alien planet without proof.” Jihyo answers “Just a little walk in the garden.”

“Did he sign the paperwork?” The captain asks. 

“Uh no” Jihyo answers a little unsure “but I think it would be best for him to confront reality before we have him sign anything.”

“You are the professional” The captain answers “Just make sure to cuff him, I can’t have an unregistered alien running around.”

“Right thank you” Jihyo says sounding polite but based on her face Baekhyun can tell she’s not happy about it. “I’m sorry that’s probably the best I can do.”

“That’s fine” Baekhyun nods and he puts his hands out to make it easier for him. 

Jihyo looks at him with a bit of confusion before clipping a small sparkling bracelet around his left hand. 

“The garden is on the precinct grounds so that bracelet won’t do anything. If you try to run it will keep you here though” Jihyo explains “think of it kind of like an invisible string tying you here.”

Jihyo opens the door and leads Baekhyun out into the rest of the precinct. The ceiling is rather high, it’s unusual for a police station but it’s not unlike a bank. In fact, the walls are made out of something that looks a lot like polished marble. The people are walking around all look professional, but they all have pastel blue, pink or purple hair which sort of an odd mix. Every piece of what Baekhyun’s seeing separately isn’t weird but together it’s like a crazy dream. Baekhyun starts wondering if that blue light messed his brain more than he thought. 

He continues to follow Jihyo until they reach a door. Jihyo pushes it open and purple light comes streaming in. Baekhyun walks through the door and can’t figure out what he should be looking at. They’ve walked into a small stone garden area, clearly a break area. All around them are walls from the precinct but they are definitely outside. There’s a cool breeze on his face and he can smell something like a floral scent. Which makes sense because there are... something like plants around them. 

“Are those plants?” Baekhyun says looking at the black growth, it almost looks like big flat shelf coral or those weird flat mushrooms. He touches one of the “leaves” and it curls away from him. 

“They are like plants from earth. They use light to create energy and they are rooted in the ground.” Jihyo nods “Although they are more efficient than your plants because they can use all wavelengths of visible light as well as UV.”

“So I’m really on another planet” Baekhyun mumbles looking at the odd plant. 

“You know most people talk about the purple sky” Jihyo says pointing up. 

Baekhyun looks up and notices that there really is a purple sky. 

“Oh” Baekhyun says dumbly “If I can breathe and air composition is what makes the sky blue, how is this one purple?”

“I’m sure you’ll have many questions and I would be happy to answer all of them but right now I’m on a bit of a clock, so if you don’t mind, could we go back inside?” Jihyo asks. 

“Sure” Baekhyun nods walking back towards the door. 

They walk right back through the same hallway they came from and Jihyo opens the door to the room Baekhyun woke up in. Once they are seated, Jihyo places a thing resembling a tablet on the table. On the screen, he sees a lot of writing. 

“This is the paperwork for you to become a registered person on uralium. Before you can sign I’ll need some information from you.” Jihyo explains “Let’s start with your name. You can make up a new one if you want or keep the one from earth.”

“Byun Baekhyun” Baekhyun answers “Byun is my family name.”

“Ok” Jihyo says updating the information on the tablet “Your birthday in earth years?”

“May 6th, 1992” Baekhyun answers. 

“Next I just need your height” Jihyo says. 

“Uh, 5’8” Baekhyun answers “That’s in feet and inches.” 

“Alright now the last thing is just to take a picture” Jihyo says picking up the tablet and aiming it at Baekhyun “Great so now all you have to do is sign with your handprint. Make sure you read over it first. There’s nothing complicated but you’re still required to read it before signing.”

Baekhyun reads the page. There’s a lot of legal speak but it’s just describing citizenship essentially. Baekhyun places his hand on the tablet before it dings. 

“Perfect! from now on you have the legal status of a minor” Jihyo smiles “Congratulations you are now a legal human on uralium.” 

“I’m a child?” Baekhyun asks offended. 

“Well, not quite but you have certain protections that are the same as a child since you can’t properly integrate into our society without a guardian. We’ve tried, it’s always bad for the humans, but don’t worry we have cities for humans so you can live completely independently, no guardian needed there.” Jihyo explains “Not many humans elect to stay in our society under the legal protection of a urali because they find it condescending so once your investigation is over, we can set you up in the human city.”

“And in the meanwhile?” Baekhyun asks a bit scared of the answer. 

“You’ll live at my house!” Jihyo answers with a smile “I have two daughters but I think you’ll all get along just fine.”

“You have two daughters?” Baekhyun asks surprised, sure it’s possible but Jihyo would have to have had them rather young, she’s certainly not over 30.

“As you may have noticed our technology is a bit more advanced than on earth and our medical practices are too.” Jihyo answers “We have pills that prevent ageing so I look around 20 but I’m actually 54.”

“Does that pill work on humans?” Baekhyun asks. 

“It does, I can get you a prescription soon.” Jihyo laughs “Now that you’ve become an official citizen, my work here is done. Detective Do will be in soon to go over your case with you.”

Baekhyun waits alone in the room after Jihyo leaves. It’s pretty boring but his phone is dead so he can’t even play a game as he waits. Eventually, he hears the door open and he turns his head to look. 

A man -probably detective Do- walks into the room. Like Jihyo he's wearing a suit and tie but he has short black hair. This man also thick black glasses that frame his round eyes and Baekhyun wonders if all uralis have those amazing round eyes. He also has full heart-shaped lips that Baekhyun has a hard time looking away from. 

He’s _really_ attractive. Not just because Baekhyun has a thing for men in suits, he would be hot if he were wearing a trash bag. It comes to Baekhyun’s mind that the detective could be his age or 76 and Baekhyun has no way of knowing, but honestly, he can’t be bothered to care. 

“I am detective Do and I’ll be handling your smuggling case.” detective Do says sitting in the chair in front of Baekhyun “Jihyo told me your name is Byun Baekhyun?” 

“Baekhyun is fine” Baekhyun answers “Why is it that your hair is black when everyone else’s is cotton candy coloured?”

“I dye it” Kyungsoo answers curtly “I’ll be recording you after I start the interview, please be honest because your words can be used in court.”

“I like it, it suits you” Baekhyun says ignoring Kyungsoo “my natural hair colour is black, what’s yours?”

“Can we begin the official interview?” Kyungsoo asks ignoring the question. 

Baekhyun just begins to laugh. This dude is way too much of a stick in the mud. Can’t they have a little chat before talking about the kidnapping? Baekhyun would like to get to know the guy. He’s on a brand new planet where he has a fresh new start. Baekhyun would like to do that by making friends. Or boyfriends, Baekhyun would be ok with that too. 

When Baekhyun stops laughing at the detective’s cute little frustrated face he watches as detective Do’s iris change from a dark brown to shining emerald green and then back to brown. Baekhyun’s never seen a real visual difference between the uralis and humans before, so it’s a bit of a shock when he sees it. 

“Did your eyes just flash green?” Baekhyun asks hoping it’s not something offensive to the alien. 

“No, they didn’t” detective Do dismisses. 

“I swear to God they did” Baekhyun assures. 

“I don’t know who God is but my eyes didn’t do anything” detective Do says before places a small box on the table and pushing a button in the middle “From now on everything in this room will be recorded, please state your name.”

“Baekhyun” Baekhyun answers but the detective gives him a look “Um Byun Baekhyun?”

“Ok Byun Baekhyun, can you please go over the events that led to your arrival on Uralium?” the detective says clearly following a script. 

“I don’t remember much of it” Baekhyun starts “I was fired from my shitty job so I went to go drink and fu- uh find some company for the night. I got to the bar, I know that, but after that, I can’t remember anything. Later I wake up in a plastic box and I hear some people talking about me waking up, next I know there’s a blue light and I’m falling asleep. Then I wake up here.”

“You’re sure the light was blue?” detective Do asks. 

“Yeah light blue” Baekhyun says “It’s all I could see.”

“Thank you that was useful.” detective Do says before pressing the button again. 

“Wait what? You don’t have any more questions?” Baekhyun asks. 

“No, you can go” the detective says with a polite smile. 

“Please!” Baekhyun says getting his attention “I- um I really wanted to be a private investigator on earth and I would just really appreciate it if I could help with the case.”

“You want me to let you join the case as a consultant?” detective Do asks surprised. 

“I would really like that yes” Baekhyun nods aggressively. 

“Alright fine” the detective sighs “You’ll need to sign another form. I’ll let Miss Park know, she can handle all the details. You should go settle into your new home now.”

“How do I get there?” Baekhyun asks. 

“I’ll escort you to Miss Park’s office. She’ll bring you home.” Detective Do explains. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: In case anyone is wondering about how the translator works. It’s inserted into the body through the skin (that’s the shock) and it translates all thoughts said by any language into thoughts that can be understood in the brain of the person with the translator. So words that don’t exist in English, and therefore can’t be translated, are anglicised in the brain and the meaning needs to be learned. If anyone has more questions on that I am happy to answer.


	3. Welcome Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So the urali are a lot like humans (basically humans but like an alternate universe) and that might seem ridiculous (and it is) BUT the possibility that you specifically exist is impossibly small but it happened so... Yeah, it’s a bad argument but it’s what I’m going with ok cause otherwise this wouldn’t be fun to write or read.

“You can think of this like a car” Jihyo explains walking up to an oval pod that looks a lot like one of those bubbles from the London Eye but smaller, you couldn’t stand in this bubble. “It’s self-driving, that’s why there’s no steering wheel.”

Baekhyun just nods because he can’t think of what to say. Getting into the pod is a little difficult because it’s low to the ground, maybe there’s a trick to it but for now, he just looks like an idiot. He finds a way to crawl in and looks for a seat belt. 

“There’s no seatbelt, it has a shock dampening system for crashes so seat belts would just be redundant” Jihyo smiles, how is she always so cheerful?

Jihyo reaches for her tablet from her bag. She hits a few buttons and suddenly the pod starts moving. Soon enough they are out of the parking lot and onto what seems like a street. The road isn’t made of cement, it looks a lot more like rails or something because it’s made of shiny metal. From what Baekhyun can see the pod isn’t even touching the ground. It’s like it’s hovering just above it. Baekhyun would try to figure out how that works but he’s had enough of a mind fuck today that his brain would probably explode if he tried. 

The pod never stops because there are no intersections, they have highway-style onramps everywhere so there's no need for them. Which may be one of the reasons why the pod is able to move at such high speeds. Even though the pod doesn’t slow down for turns it never even so much as wobbles. It’s a perfectly smooth ride. 

Eventually, the pod heads directly towards an ocean or lake or something at full speed. Baekhyun feels uneasy as the transport pod doesn’t make any attempt to avoid the large body of deep blue water. Baekhyun shuts his eyes not wanting to watch but nothing happens, no spinning out, no crashing, nothing. Baekhyun opens his eyes and looks around, it seems they’ve gone into some sort of underwater tube. 

“Like the view?” Jihyo smiles “I never get tired of it but my daughters could care less unless there’s a dauca.”

“Dauca?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Right sorry, it’s like a cute little water creature. They like playing around the tubes sometimes.” Jihyo explains “There’s a lot for you to learn but you can take your time.”

In a few minutes, their little pod splits off from the main tube and follows a pathway that seems like it’s kinda like a driveway. Once they reach the end of the tube they go into a small garage-like space. The door closes and the water is pushed out of the room. Baekhyun and Jihyo get out of the pod and walk up some stairs towards the only door in the garage. 

“We’re here.” Jihyo smiles before opening the door.

Baekhyun follows her through the door that opens into a much homier looking room. Very quickly two teenage girls run towards Jihyo and Baekhyun. One has pink hair like their mom and one has light blue hair. 

“Mom! Nayeon stole my red top and stretched it out!” The blue-haired girl yells out as soon as the door opens. 

“It’s not my fault you’re so tiny!” The pink-haired girl, obviously Nayeon, yells back. 

“I’m only 16!” The girl screams angrily. 

“Both of you stop yelling!” Jihyo says in what can only be described as a “mom voice”, so she’s not  _ always _ cheerful “We have a guest!”

“Is he a human?” Nayeon asks. 

“Yes he is and we’re going to help him adjust here.” Jihyo answers “Baekhyun this is Nayeon and Chaeyoung, my daughters.”

“Hi um, I’m Baekhyun.” Baekhyun says feeling a little awkward. 

“Your room is in the basement, it’s a bit like a studio apartment so if you want to live alone, you can.” Jihyo explains. 

“I’d rather not” Baekhyun says before clarifying so he doesn't seem ungrateful “Um on earth I lived in an awful basement and I’d just rather not live like that anymore.”

“Sweet! He can take my room!” Chaeyoung says excitedly. 

“Why you? I’m older! I want the basement!” Nayeon replies. 

“Neither of you are getting it.” Jihyo says firmly “Maybe just look at it before deciding, it has windows where you can see the ocean. You might find it’s very different.” 

“Ok” Baekhyun smiles, an ocean view would be nice.

“I’m going to go out and buy some ingredients for food that won’t be too much of a culture shock for you.” Jihyo says “Do you like pizza?”

“Who doesn’t?” Baekhyun laughs. 

“Yay human food night!” Nayeon says with a smile. 

“Great I’ll go get what I need to make it.” Jihyo says before turning to her daughters “Behave.”

“Of course we will” Chaeyoung says with an over-exaggerated smile until the door closes as her mom leaves. “How did you get here? Tell us everything!”

Nayeon and Chaeyoung both run closer to Baekhyun excited. 

“Um I was abducted I guess?” Baekhyun says feeling a bit uncomfortable with the girl’s excitement. 

“Oooo he doesn’t remember!” Chaeyoung says to her sister. 

“He was drugged!” Nayeon concludes “Or stunned, did you see a green light at any point?”

“A blue light” Baekhyun corrects. 

“Blue?” Chaeyoung says confused “It should have been green.”

“Why does that matter?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Well blue light is intense, it’s not used to stun people.” Chaeyoung answers. 

“How do you know all this?” Baekhyun says a little overwhelmed. 

“We like to hang out at the precinct sometimes” Nayeon answers “Crime-solving is fun.”

“I can’t disagree with that.” Baekhyun laughs, he wonders if the girls have the same dream as him or if this is just more of a hobby to them. 

“Who’s the detective on your case?” Chaeyoung asks. 

“Detective Do.” Baekhyun answers. 

“Kyungsoo is good” Nayeon nods “If someone’s gonna solve this, it’s Kyungsoo.”

“Junmyeon is better” Chaeyoung says turning to her sister. 

“You’re only saying that cause he let you ride along in his car, Kyungsoo has the record for closing the most cases in 5 years.” Nayeon argues. 

“Yeah but Junmyeon has closed the most cases for his age!” Chaeyoung throws back. 

“That’s cause he’s like a million years old!” Nayeon scoffs 

“He’s 34!” Chaeyoung yells back.

“Wait how old is detective Do?” Baekhyun asks curiously. 

“You like him?” Nayeon smirks. 

“What? All I asked was his age.” Baekhyun panics. 

“He didn’t deny it, he’s totally into Kyungsoo” Chaeyoung says joining in to team up against Baekhyun. 

“Where’s my room?” Baekhyun asks, changing the subject. 

“This way” Chaeyoung laughs before walking out of the entryway down a hallway. 

Baekhyun follows the young teen down the hall noting the cute family portraits on the wall. Baekhyun hasn’t been on this planet for long but he already feels more comfortable than he did on earth. Chaeyoung opens a door at the end of the hall that leads to a staircase. 

“You can lock it if you want privacy” Chaeyoung says before walking down the stairs. 

Baekhyun’s not sure what he was expecting when Jihyo said “ocean view” but seeing the huge windows where he can look into the vast blue water feels a bit strange. There’s no sea life, most likely because they’re not near any type of reef but the sun streams through the water and into the room giving it a very weird feeling. It’s almost like living in a bubble. Certainly nothing like a typical basement. In the room there are some interesting looking chairs, a kitchenette and two doors mostly likely leading to a bathroom and bedroom. Probably the most expensive-looking studio basement Baekhyun has ever seen, even online. 

“Pretty scary right?” Nayeon says from behind them “Any sea creature could come up to the window and watch you sleep.”

“The windows are one-sided” Chaeyoung turns to sister looking confused. 

Nayeon just gives her sister a look as a response. 

“Oh right yeah no I forgot... uh it doesn’t work against sea beasts?” Chaeyoung lies badly “So you don’t want to take this room right?”

“Nice try” Baekhyun laughs. 

“Dammit you had one job Chaeng” Nayeon says with false anger. 

“You guys can hang out down here whenever you want.” Baekhyun smiles “Just don’t go in the bedroom.”

“That’s just there by the way.” Nayeon answers pointing to one of the doors. 

“Can we use the TV too?” Chaeyoung says excitedly. 

“Tv?” Baekhyun asks not seeing any TV in the room. 

“TV on” Chaeyoung says and suddenly the wall in front of the couch lights up and displays a logo as it turns on. 

“Wanna play something?” Nayeon says grabbing what are clearly game controllers from a drawer in the coffee table. 

“Hell yes.” Baekhyun says taking one.

Gaming with an entirely foreign console is certainly hard to get the hang of but eventually he figures out how to play. Baekhyun and the girls keep playing until they hear Jihyo come home. 

“The human part of the supermarket had almost everything” Jihyo says putting the bag on the counter. 

Everyone runs upstairs to greet Jihyo and the pizza ingredients she bought. They unpack everything and get out the pans to make cooking a bit faster. Jihyo rolls out the dough she bought into 4 equal squares. Apparently that’s how they eat them here, at least it’s not a triangle pizza. Each pizza is covered in a red sauce, probably tomato and shredded cheese

“Do you want meat on yours? It’s similar to pepperoni, it’s a bit spicy.” Jihyo says

“No thanks, I’m trying to stay vegetarian.” Baekhyun explains “I watched a documentary on the meat industry and... yeah I’d rather not eat that anymore.”

“We don’t kill animals” Chaeyoung says eating a small piece of square meat “We have some in farms so we can take cell samples to grow their meat in a lab.”

“I’ll have some test tube meat then” Baekhyun says putting some on his pizza. 

Jihyo and her daughters add a bunch more toppings that look foreign and kinda gross. He knows plants are black here but it’s still weird to see on a pizza. Baekhyun sticks to lab meat. 

They all put the pizzas into an oven and they’re ready to eat in less than 2 minutes because technology. Baekhyun’s brain really can’t keep up with all the science talk they throw at him and he doesn’t care enough to figure it out. All he needs to know is that he can eat his pizza. 

Supper is surprisingly good for alien food. Baekhyun knows he should feel scared or lonely being on an alien planet but he’d do anything to make this his new life. He has a family, a nice room and maybe a job as a police consultant. Baekhyun doesn’t notice he’s crying until Nayeon points it out. 

“Are you ok?” Nayeon asks putting down her pizza “Mom?”

“Baekhyun it’s normal to feel overwhelmed, if you want to stay in your room you can.” Jihyo suggests. 

“It’s not that.” Baekhyun wipes his tears “I’ve just never had a real family, foster homes were ok but this is just” Baekhyun says taking a breath “It’s really nice, I’ve always wanted to have a nice family dinner and everything’s just really nice here.”

Chaeyoung gets up to hug Baekhyun. It’s a little awkward side hug but Baekhyun loves it. 

“Thank you” Baekhyun whispers. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I have nothing against people who eat meat, I eat meat. I just wanted to make that clear. Also lab grown meat is a thing, it’s just a very expensive thing.


	4. Boys in Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I felt bad that Kyungsoo wasn’t in the last chapter so I’m posting another one.

The next morning Jihyo has Baekhyun sign the documents that allow him to be a consultant on the case and it basically just says he can’t sue anyone if he’s injured or killed during the case. Baekhyun happily signs because this is literally his dream and working with Kyungsoo doesn’t hurt either. Once they arrive at the precinct Baekhyun heads to Kyungsoo’s office and walks in. 

“I signed everything so I’m officially on the case.” Baekhyun says walking in “Where are we at right now?”

“So far I’ve made a case board” Kyungsoo says getting up to put a whiteboard on a stand “I’ve just put all the information we have right now on it and I was just following up on a lead.”

“I was kinda expecting like a hologram projection case board.” Baekhyun says feeling a little underwhelmed with the very basic set up Kyungsoo has. 

“Not everything is high tech here” Kyungsoo laughs lightly “Anyways, in terms of suspects we know at least two people are involved but we don’t know who since you lost your memory of the abduction. We also know what device they used to stun you in your shipment crate.”

“But I saw a blue light which isn’t used to stun people,” Baekhyun says repeating the information he learned. 

“Right, but I did some research and found that there are blue light stunners but they’re used on large animals which is why it’s a lead” Kyungsoo explains “Since it has such intense power only licensed animal handlers are allowed to use them and they are highly regulated.”

“So a farmer captured me?” Baekhyun says a little disappointed. 

“A farmer, entertainer or whatever else but whoever it was, they’re on this list” Kyungsoo says showing the screen to Baekhyun. 

On the screen, there’s a list of names, business names and licence numbers. There’s a ton of names listed but at least they’ve narrowed their suspect pool from the whole world down to a couple of hundred people. 

“How are we going to narrow this down?” Baekhyun asks because interrogating everyone on this list would take forever. 

“I sent the list over to Yixing in finances so he’ll see if there’s anything fishy going on with these businesses” Kyungsoo answers “Human smuggling is a profitable business, if they’re making money off it, there’s probably a trace.”

“What about the shipment crate, it came from somewhere right?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Yeah, earth” Kyungsoo chuckles “We bring in some supplies from interplanetary locations. I don’t know how you got through customs though. There was no return address and the location it was being shipped to doesn’t exist.”

“So they would have intercepted it at some point during transit” Baekhyun concludes. 

“They would have if there wasn’t a new scanning station put up earlier that week.” Kyungsoo continues.

“Give me the number of the person who set that up cause I need to thank them.” Baekhyun smiles. 

“I put the request in a month ago” Kyungsoo answers “I thought it might help get some information on the smugglers.”

“Nayeon was right, you are a genius.” Baekhyun says under his breath but Kyungsoo still looks up in shock. Kyungsoo opens his mouth to respond but the phone ringing cuts him off. 

Kyungsoo presses a button on his desk and the ringing stops. 

“Hey Kyungsoo, I found something interesting” A pleasant male voice answers “I’m only about a quarter of the way through but there’s some unusual activity at Green Stone Farms, you might want to check it out while I run the rest of the names on the list.”

“Alright thanks, Yixing” Kyungsoo says before pressing the button again “Ready for a road trip?”

“Hell yes” Baekhyun smiles widely. He’s waited so long to interview a suspect, it’s his dream come true. 

Turns out Kyungsoo isn’t much of a talker in the car or “pod” Baekhyun’s not really sure what to call it but the music Kyungsoo picks is actually really nice to listen to. Who knew they had R&B on uralium. 

“So how old are you?” Baekhyun asks trying to start a conversation. 

“Why do you need to know?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“Well if we’re going to be working together I want to learn more about you. You know to be friends and stuff.” Baekhyun explains “I know you’re less than 34.”

“You do?” Kyungsoo looks at Baekhyun skeptically. 

“Jihyo’s daughters implied you’re younger than Junmyeon and he’s 34” Baekhyun explains “He has the most arrests for his age but you have the most in 5 years.”

“Maybe I decided to be a police officer later in life.” Kyungsoo suggests “I could be 45 and have started at 40.”

“Did you?” Baekhyun asks now even more curious about Kyungsoo’s age. 

“Oh look we’re here” Kyungsoo says as the pod slows down. 

Baekhyun gets out of the pod and he realizes it’s not even close to what a farm looks like on earth. They arrive at a regular looking, if not futuristic looking, skyscraper building in the middle of the city. It makes sense since it would mostly be a lab for creating meat with only a few animals for breeding and DNA sequencing purposes.

Baekhyun follows Kyungsoo as they walk into the extravagant lobby with a huge indoor waterfall and incredibly huge black plants climbing all around the waterfall. 

“Baekhyun?” Kyungsoo says getting Baekhyun’s attention “Focus, we’re not here to look at the pretty display.” 

“Right” Baekhyun nods, he has to stay professional. 

Kyungsoo approaches the front desk of the lobby and pulls out his badge to show it to the secretary. 

“I'm detective Do, I’m here to speak to the animal welfare manager.” Kyungsoo says, cooly. 

“I’ll let him know.” The secretary says with a polite smile “He’ll just be a few minutes, have a seat.”

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo walk over to the luxurious sofa and sit down before Baekhyun loses his cool and turns to Kyungsoo excitedly.

“So is there a plan?” Baekhyun asks “Good cop, Bad cop type thing?” 

“I checked the file in the car” Kyungsoo starts “I know this guy, we went to school together. I doubt he’s running this thing but he might have some info.”

“So you’ll use your past to get stuff out of him, smart.” Baekhyun nods. 

“Not quite” Kyungsoo answers “for this interrogation you should stay back and watch, don’t say anything, just listen.”

“Lame” Baekhyun pouts. 

“You have to start somewhere.” Kyungsoo smiles seeming to enjoy Baekhyun’s pain. 

“Soo!” A man dressed in a suit says walking into the room “what brings you here?”

“Soo?” Baekhyun smiles. 

“That’s detective Do to you.” Kyungsoo says to Baekhyun before turning to the man “Hey Minseok, can we talk in your office.”

“Of course, right this way.” Minseok says walking past the front desk towards a glass door just behind. 

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo follow him towards the room. It looks very much like a regular office, windows, desk, desktop screen as well as a small moving black plant which is the only indication that this isn’t earth. 

“What can do for you?” Minseok says sitting in his chair. 

“You are the one in charge of the 500nm tranquillizers, is that correct?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“I am” Minseok says the smile fading from his face. 

“We’ve found some discrepancies in your finances, care to explain that.” Kyungsoo says flatly. 

“Uh I don’t know, you’d have to talk to finances.” Minseok says rubbing his neck. 

“The money was added to the company funds by your card.” Kyungsoo states. 

Minseok presses his lips together and runs his hand through his hair. 

“What are you accusing me of?” Minseok says sounding like he’s repressing fear. 

“I don’t think you knew what they were doing with the tranquillizers and I’m sure you had a reason for renting it out.” Kyungsoo says as if it were a fact and based on Minseok’s body language, it is. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Minseok lies so clearly even an untrained eye could tell. 

“They used it to zap humans Minseok.” Kyungsoo says “They stole humans from their homes and shipped them in boxes to be trophies in a zoo.”

“They aren’t meant for humans.” Minseok says looking up in fear “That could give permanent brain damage.”

“It could?” Baekhyun says terrified. 

“We had you checked don’t worry you’re fine.” Kyungsoo says to Baekhyun. 

“They used it on him?” Minseok asks “I swear I didn’t know, one of our animals got sick and she needed surgery. I was just trying to save her but we didn’t have the budget! I need some extra cash, but I didn’t know they’d hurt people!”

“I’m not here to arrest you Minseok, I just need a name.” Kyungsoo says firmly. 

“A name?” Minseok asks visibly becoming less tense. 

“The person you were renting it to, what was their name?” Kyungsoo reiterates.

“I don’t know.” Minseok says “I just drop it off at the lockers at union station.”

“You must have talked to them at some point to set up the drop.” Kyungsoo says. 

“Online” Minseok says before typing something into his computer, he turns the screen towards Baekhyun and Kyungsoo to show what’s on it “It was a chatroom but you could trace that, right?”

“I’ll have someone come by and check it out.” Kyungsoo says “Did you give them the key as well?”

“No, I don’t know how they got it out” Minseok answers “I just came to pick it up 2 days later.”

“Alright thank you” Kyungsoo says standing up. 

Baekhyun follows him and they both walk out of the office and back toward their car/pod. 

“You’re not going to arrest him?” Baekhyun asks “He was illegally selling his tranquillizer.”

“He was trying to save a life and didn’t know the consequences” Kyungsoo answers “Plus, he gave us information that will lead to your smugglers, it’s considered a deal. Would you rather I arrest him?”

“No” Baekhyun says softly “but what if he’s lying?”

“I don’t see why he would but we will check the station lockers, if he’s lying, we’ll know.” Kyungsoo answers “Do you want to grab lunch?” 

“What?” Baekhyun says taken back, is Kyungsoo asking him out? Now?

“We’ll have nothing to do until techs trace the chatroom address” Kyungsoo says casually “Unless you’re not hungry...”

“I am!” Baekhyun says no way he’s going to turn down a date with Kyungsoo. 


	5. Random Goose Chase

“You know the first interview was fun but I’m really getting tired of farmers who don’t know anything about smuggling.” Baekhyun says in the pod to get Kyungsoo to talk to him “Why are we still interviewing the other farmers, Minseok already told us about the lockers” 

“And the techs are still checking the locker security and trying to figure out how someone broke in and hacked the locker to unlock it.” Kyungsoo says “So we’re going to see if anyone else has any more information.” 

“It’s been 5 days how have they not figured it out yet” Baekhyun sighs “Couldn’t they have just used a skeleton key? Also who cares can’t we just get the security footage and see who took something out from the locker Minseok put it in?”

“No, because the lockers aren’t accessible from the outside, you swipe your key and the machine will bring the right locker to the front so you can open it.” Kyungsoo explains “And hundreds of people open lockers every day, anyone of them could be our smuggler.”

“Seems stupid” Baekhyun pouts “Then only one person can get their stuff at once.”

“Yeah but it saves space.” Kyungsoo counters. 

“What happened with the chatroom Minseok was talking about?” Baekhyun asks. 

“The address was untraceable” Kyungsoo explains “They bounced it off a bunch of different servers so we can’t even know where it was sent from.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?” Baekhyun pouts. 

“I did, you just forgot” Kyungsoo smiles at Baekhyun’s pout “Anyway we have to go interview this guy so let’s go. Might be our last chance to get a lead.”

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo get out of the pod and get into yet another skyscraper. Baekhyun’s tired of it by now. He knows 18 suspects isn’t that much but after 17 he’s really tired of hearing the same things and seeing the same surroundings. The brand name changes but nothing else, it’s boring. The only benefit is that now he feels much more comfortable with helping Kyungsoo interview suspects. After spending a week with Kyungsoo, Baekhyun really has a feel for how Kyungsoo does the job and what role Baekhyun can play. Feels almost like they’ve been partners for years, it just feels natural and right. They work well together and Baekhyun feels his connection with Kyungsoo growing stronger every day. 

“I’m detective Do, I’m here to see Luhan, the wellness manager.” Kyungsoo says at the front desk. 

“He’s waiting for you in his office, room 101.” The worker responds. 

“Thank you.” Kyungsoo says before they walk toward the office. 

They approach the glass office and Baekhyun can see a man inside with pink hair and an undercut. His skin is flawless and if Baekhyun didn’t know better he’d think he stepped straight out of a manga.

“Damn he’s hot” Baekhyun says before they open the door and Kyungsoo sends him daggers. 

“Be professional” Kyungsoo grumbles to Baekhyun “Hello Luhan I’m sure you know why I’m here.”

“I do and I have the logs of where our tranq was for the past month, it’s highly detailed.” Luhan answers “I have the past 6 months too if you want them.”

“That would be helpful thank you.” Kyungsoo says. 

“How do we know they aren’t fabricated?” Baekhyun steps in. 

“We have a very large operation here and trust me we need this tranq every day.” Luhan answers “We applied to have another one but it’s still being processed. There’s no way I could rent it out.” 

“Were you ever contacted by someone who asked to rent it out?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“No, unfortunately, I’ll be no help to you or your partner.” Luhan answers. 

“He’s not my boyfriend, we just work together.” Kyungsoo answers quickly. 

“I meant police partners but good to know.” Luhan says before winking at Baekhyun. 

“Alright, I think we can conclude this interview.” Kyungsoo says getting up “Baekhyun?”

“Right” Baekhyun says not wanting to get his ass beat because Kyungsoo seems really mad. 

Once they get out of earshot Baekhyun speaks up. 

“We didn’t grill him about the money discrepancies” Baekhyun points out confused about Kyungsoo’s behaviour. 

“It has nothing to do with the tranquillizer so it doesn’t matter” Kyungsoo answers in a very matter of factly way. 

“Ok well that was the last interview so do we have something else to do today?” Baekhyun asks. 

“We need to go over the paperwork and verify it” Kyungsoo sighs. 

“Oh, that’s fun” Baekhyun laughs. 

“Well, this job isn’t all action.” Kyungsoo says unlocking the pod so they can get in “but tell you what, after we're done I’ll buy you dinner unless Luhan was lying and we get a lead.”

“Never thought I’d be hoping to not get a lead.” Baekhyun smiles. 

~=+•+=~

“Looks like Luhan was telling the truth” Kyungsoo says looking over the last page they went through. 

“So free dinner?” Baekhyun asks expectantly. 

“Is that the only reason you work with me?” Kyungsoo laughs “For free food?”

“That and you have a nice ass.” Baekhyun jokes. 

“I don’t know why I put up with you” Kyungsoo says shutting off the computer and grabbing his jacket. 

“I’m punctual, cheerful, fun to be around, good at my job and I do paperwork with you.” Baekhyun answers “What more could you want from a  _ police _ partner” Baekhyun ends with a wink poking fun at Kyungsoo’s earlier mishap. 

“Someone who can stay quiet maybe?” Kyungsoo says before opening his office door. “You in the mood for sixam?” 

“Is that the sushi thing?” Baekhyun asks “those little roll things.” Kyungsoo nods 

“Sushi” Kyungsoo repeats with a smile “You’ll have to tell me more about earth. It seems like an interesting place.”

“You could always look it up” Baekhyun explains as they walk out of Kyungsoo’s office and head to the parking garage. “All that information is on the internet.”

“Yeah but that’s not fun” Kyungsoo rebuttals “The internet does not have your... interesting ways of explaining things.”

“If I didn’t know better I’d take that as an insult.” Baekhyun laughs. 

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo keep talking on their way to the sushi/sixam restaurant. Usually, Kyungsoo doesn’t talk in the car much but they’re also usually on duty so that might be why. Once they get to the restaurant they place their order and Baekhyun just hopes he got something a human would enjoy eating. Uralis don’t always have the same pallet as humans, Baekhyun learned that the hard way. 

“So what’s your favourite animal on earth?” Kyungsoo asks after the waiter takes their order. 

“That’s hard. I really like dogs... penguins are also really cute... they look kinda like you actually.” Baekhyun says before making a final decision “I pick koalas. They’re these little fuzzy animals that only eat one type of leaf. They can’t even figure out how to eat that leaf off a plate but I still find them cute, they’re trying their best.”

“I’ve literally never heard of koalas. They don’t sound like a real animal” Kyungsoo says “it would die so fast.” 

“It’s a real animal” Baekhyun says “No other animal can eat eucalyptus so it has plenty to eat. Although, eventually koalas teeth wear out so they starve to death.”

“So all it does is sit in trees and eat leaves and look cute?” Kyungsoo asks still not buying it. 

“I promise you Koalas are real.” Baekhyun says very seriously. 

“There’s no way! I have a basic understanding of evolution Baekhyun, there’s no way that creature lives on earth.” Kyungsoo argues “I’m not falling for this again.”

“So I lied about gremlins, let that go!” Baekhyun smiles “I promise you the koala bear is real and so are all the facts I told you, I saw it on YouTube.”

“Now it’s a bear too?” Kyungsoo asks.

“No, it’s not, that’s just an expression or something.” Baekhyun explains “I know it doesn’t sound real but that’s why I like koalas. They have so many challenges but they’re still doing ok. It’s inspirational really.”

“I still don’t believe you.” Kyungsoo laughs but Baekhyun can tell he’s not serious. 

Baekhyun will have to show Kyungsoo that video later assuming they can stream zefrank1 videos on this planet. 

“Hey, Kyungsoo!” Baekhyun hears a girl say from behind him “Long time no see!”

“Hi Sooyoung” Kyungsoo smiles “Baekhyun, this is Sooyoung one of my friends from high school.”

“You’re still in touch with your high school friends? I’m impressed, none of mine bothered to call me once we graduated.” Baekhyun answers. 

“It’s only been 9 years” Sooyoung answers “Plus we did go to the same university, even if I became a lawyer instead.” 

“9 years? Kyungsoo you’re younger than me?” Baekhyun says surprised. 

“I might be” Kyungsoo says looking nervous. 

“Aww Kyungsoo no need to be embarrassed.” Sooyoung teases “He's very mature for his age, he started saving for his wedding when he was 15.”

“Hopeless romantic?” Baekhyun smirks “that’s cute.” 

“Well I’ll leave you two alone then” Sooyoung smiles before walking away. 

“Weddings are expensive, it seemed smart.” Kyungsoo answers “just a financial decision, nothing else.” 

“Why tell people then?” Baekhyun teases “Did you tell them all about all your financial plans.”

“She was my girlfriend for a year so it seemed like something she should know.” Kyungsoo says taking a drink of water. 

“Oh I’m sorry it didn’t work out but at least you’re friends now” Baekhyun says feeling bad for teasing Kyungsoo. 

“It’s ok she’s happily married now.” Kyungsoo says with a little smile “She and her wife are really meant for each other, they’re a much better couple than we were.”

Before Baekhyun can change the subject to something a little less depressing the waiter comes to drop off their food. Nothing better than sushi to cheer someone up over an ex. Well, ice cream but they don’t have that here. 

While they eat Baekhyun’s mind wanders back to Sooyoung. Baekhyun was fairly sure this was a date but what if Kyungsoo is straight and this nothing more than two friends going out for dinner? Now that Baekhyun thinks about it Kyungsoo never called it a date. He could swear Kyungsoo flirted back with him though. 

“You ok?” Kyungsoo asks noticing Baekhyun’s frown “Missing home?”

“Ha no” Baekhyun says thinking back to his life a week ago “There's only one thing I miss about earth and that’s ice cream, maybe Nutella.”

“Ice cream? That sounds like an odd thing to miss.” Kyungsoo says. 

“It’s a sweet milk thing that’s frozen, it’s really good” Baekhyun explains. 

“Oh like frozen yogurt?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“You have frozen yogurt on the planet and Jihyo hasn’t told me?” Baekhyun asks feeling betrayed “She bought me a carrot to help me feel my “home comforts” but not frozen yogurt?” 

“Maybe she didn’t know you had it on earth, it’s existed here long before we knew about humans.” Kyungsoo answers. 

“Can we go get some? I’ll pay.” Baekhyun asks excitedly. 

“Sure.” 

Kyungsoo pays for their meal and walks with Baekhyun to the nearest fro-yo place and if it didn’t feel like a date before, walking down the street together while the sun sets lighting up the sky with a beautiful spread of colours, certainly does. They might as well be walking hand in hand, they’re close enough to. Kyungsoo’s adorable laugh certainly makes Baekhyun wish it were a date. The more time they spend together the more Baekhyun really hopes Kyungsoo feels the same way about him. Hurts a bit to think about being rejected. 

Once they reach the frozen yogurt place Baekhyun realizes how different it is here. The setup and decor are almost exactly the same as frozen yogurt places on earth, down to the row of spouts where you can get the frozen treat. But the frozen yogurt itself is incredibly different. Baekhyun doesn’t recognize a single flavour. They have little pictures to show what flavour they are, which would help if he knew what any of those things were. 

“Not big into chocolate?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Never heard of it.” Kyungsoo answers “you can wait here with your card ready and I’ll get you something you’ll like.”

“Never heard of chocolate?” Baekhyun says to himself “maybe I don’t want to live here after all.” 

Kyungsoo comes back with two deep purple bowls of frozen yogurt with some crumbled cookie-like toppings. Baekhyun pays for their desserts and they find a place to sit. 

“So what is this?” Baekhyun asks sticking his spoon in it. 

“Quill fruit” Kyungsoo answers “we had some on Wednesday and you liked it.”

“Oh yeah, that spiky thing” Baekhyun says before eating some of the ice cream. 

Kyungsoo was right. He does really likes this. The fruit by itself is a bit weird, good but weird, but in the ice cream, it’s amazing. It’s creamy, nutty with a fruity flavour, almost like blueberries and something he can’t quite place but it’s just a perfect mix. 

“This is really good” Baekhyun says with a huge smile “We should do this more often.”

“You can get as much as you want but I’m not willing to work out enough to make up for frozen yogurt every day.” Kyungsoo jokes. 

“I meant going out together” Baekhyun says sincerely. 

“Oh. In that case, I agree.” Kyungsoo smiles fondly. 


	6. Cold Case

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ngl this is actually one of my favourite chapters (although 9&10 are better)

“What are we leads are we following today?” Baekhyun smiles. 

“The techs couldn’t find anything at the lockers.” Kyungsoo sighs “It’s been classified as a cold case.”

“Ok, so what’s next?” Baekhyun asks still smiling. 

“It’s a cold case Baekhyun” Kyungsoo answers without looking up from his computer “There are no leads.”

“Ok, but we’ll find one right?” Baekhyun asks “What are you working on now?”

“Paperwork” Kyungsoo sighs “I’m not looking into the case anymore.”

“Why not?” Baekhyun asks “There has to be something!”

“We followed our lead and it didn’t work out” Kyungsoo says looking up at Baekhyun “It happens but there are always more cases with active leads.” 

“It's only been a week!” Baekhyun argues. 

“You can work with me on my next case if you want” Kyungsoo suggests. 

“No” Baekhyun says feeling betrayed. 

“No?” Kyungsoo asks surprised. 

“I don’t want to work with you anymore.” Baekhyun spits “If you can’t keep a case for more than a week then what’s the point.”

“Baekhyun-” Kyungsoo says looking hurt. 

“No” Baekhyun says again before turning around and leaving the office. 

Baekhyun tries to remember how to get to Jihyo’s office but the precinct is a bit of a maze. After a few minutes, he finds it and knocks on the door. 

“Come in!” Jihyo says from inside and Baekhyun opens the door and walks in.

“Can I take the pod and go home?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Sure you can but why do you want to leave so soon?” Jihyo asks. 

“They closed my smuggling case.” Baekhyun answers. 

“I’m sorry, do you want to talk about it?” Jihyo asks and Baekhyun is once again reminded that she’s a therapist.

“That’s ok I’d rather just process it at home.” Baekhyun answers. 

“Alright but give me a call if you need it ok?” Jihyo says “and remember to send the pod back here for when I need to come home.”

“Thanks and I will” Baekhyun smiles. 

Baekhyun walks down to the parking garage and gets in the pod. He picks up the tablet and sets it to “home”. He also plays one of the playlists and lets his thoughts run wild. 

He’s not sure why he reacted so childishly to having his case being closed. He's 27 for god's sake but he couldn't help but feel angry. Maybe because it was his first case and they couldn’t even solve it. Maybe it’s that Kyungsoo gave up so easily, almost feels like Kyungsoo is giving up on him so easily like everyone else does. Maybe because after he thought he was starting a new better life, things seem to be going the same as they did on earth. Maybe Baekhyun should have taken Kyungsoo’s offer and hopped on the next case. He _probably_ should have taken Kyungsoo’s offer and maybe he will later. 

Truth is Baekhyun doesn’t know. Everything has been so crazy in the past week almost nothing feels real.  All he wants is to chill on a couch and watch trash tv. So once he gets home, that’s what he’ll do. Just take a break from all the craziness and reevaluate later. 

Once he gets home though he finds the couch in the living room is already taken by Nayeon who’s eating a pint of frozen yogurt with a box of tissues nearby and smudged mascara. It looks like he’s not the only one having a bad day. 

“Mind if I join you?” Baekhyun says walking into the living room. 

“Why are you back so soon?” Nayeon asks wiping her eyes. 

“They closed my case” Baekhyun says bitterly. 

“And they didn’t even call to tell you before you went all the way there?” Nayeon asks. 

“Nope” Baekhyun sighs “but what’s going on with you?”

“Um” Nayeon says eating some more ice cream “it’s complicated.”

“I have all day” Baekhyun smiles. 

“There’s this girl.” Nayeon starts biting her lip. 

“And she was bullying you?” Baekhyun asks. 

“No... she’s just um really nice and pretty?” Nayeon says hinting at what she means “I just really like her.”

“What happened?” Baekhyun asks. 

“I asked her out and she said yes” Nayeon smiles “I was really happy and I thought she liked me but we’ve been dating for months and she hasn’t gleamed and I know it can take years for some people but I already have and it just hurts to be the only one.”

“Can you back up for us dumb humans?” Baekhyun says, not understanding. 

“Um a gleam is what happens when you find someone who’s perfect for you.” Nayeon explains. 

“That sounds like a soulmate” Baekhyun says. 

“I guess but there’s not _ just  _ one person for you” Nayeon answers “A gleam feels like this explosion in your heart? And your eyes get all bright, that’s where the name comes from.”

“Do they flash green?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Yeah, how did you know?” Nayeon asks a little confused “I thought humans didn’t gleam.”

“We don’t, it was just a guess.” Baekhyun answers storing that little piece of information in his brain for later “Can it happen after knowing someone for a day?”

“I mean technically I think so” Nayeon answers “What does that have to do with the girl I like?”

“Nothing sorry, I was just curious.” Baekhyun says quickly “So she saw your eyes and she didn’t say anything and just kept dating you?”

“She didn’t see them. I was thinking about her in class and it happened.” Nayeon explains “I um haven’t told her either but after our date today I just couldn’t stop thinking about how I gleamed and she hasn’t. It hurt so bad.”

“What you’re saying sounds a lot like one-sided love and that is something I certainly understand.” Baekhyun smiles remembering some of his past relationships “but have you thought that maybe she has gleamed and not told you and she’s in the exact same position as you?”

Nayeon looks up from her ice cream with wide eyes. 

“Do you think so?” Nayeon asks. 

“You won’t know if you don’t ask.” Baekhyun says to comfort her “but even if her eyes haven’t uh gleamed yet doesn’t mean they won’t, she likes you and you like her so give her soul or heart or whatever the time to... sparkle.”

“Thanks” Nayeon smiles “you’re a little weird but I appreciate it.”

“Thank you?” Baekhyun laughs. 

“I’m fine now you can go call Kyungsoo.” Nayeon says catching Baekhyun off guard, Baekhyun looks at her in surprise but doesn’t deny it “Come on, who would  _ guess _ that our eyes turn green.”

Baekhyun just blushes before getting up to call Kyungsoo in his room.

“Baekhyun wait.” Nayeon says quickly “If your case is over are you going to leave?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to” Baekhyun says honestly “It would be up to your mom but even if I leave, I’ll stay in touch. I promise.”

“Thanks” Nayeon smiles “Now go call him.”

Baekhyun walks over to his room. He sets up the holographic skype thing and makes sure he looks decent before hitting “call”.

“Hey, Kyungsoo Nayeon just told me something interesting.” Baekhyun says once Kyungsoo answers the call and his hologram stands in front of Baekhyun. 

“What?” Kyungsoo asks unamused. 

“She was talking about her crush and gleams.” Baekhyun smirks at the surprise Kyungsoo is trying to suppress “You know that thing where your eyes turn green.”

“I didn’t gleam!” Kyungsoo lies. 

“Kyungsoo there’s no reason to lie, I was there, I know what happened.” Baekhyun smiles. 

“Trick of the light” Kyungsoo says crossing his arms. 

“Come on you know I’m not buying that.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes “What’s the big deal? I like you too and we went on those date-”

“They weren’t dates.” Kyungsoo disagrees.

“We went out for lunch and supper alone in fancy restaurants, how are those not dates?” Baekhyun says a little frustrated with Kyungsoo, they’re supposed to be having a cute confession moment. 

“Listen, you seem like a nice human but there’s no way I gleamed after one conversation with you. It doesn’t make sense Baekhyun, you’re not even a urali.” Kyungsoo says, sounding like he’s trying to convince himself. 

“Why the hell should that matter?” Baekhyun says offended “Clearly your soul or whatever thinks we’d be good together! Why can’t you just accept that?”

“Please don’t tell me you really think gleams are caused by some sort of soulmate interaction, it’s just hormones!” Kyungsoo yells “I thought you were smarter than that Baekhyun, just cause my eyes turned green doesn’t mean I should do anything about it.”

“So you admit that you gleamed!” Baekhyun yells back. 

“Fine! Yes, I did but who cares! It obviously was a mistake!” Kyungsoo says taking a deep breath. 

“How do you know if you won’t even give us a chance?” Baekhyun says his anger dissipating, replaced with something that feels painful. 

“I don’t want to, how do you not get that? I don’t want a relationship with you! I don’t want to be thinking about you all the time. I don’t want my heart to race when I see you. I don’t want to lose control of my emotions just because you smiled. I don’t want my life to be controlled by the fact that I want to spend time with you. I don’t want any of that.” Kyungsoo yells admitting more than he’d probably like “I just want to be in control of my life. I want to do my job and live alone like I have for years. I like living that way.”

“Kyungsoo-” Baekhyun says in a soft voice before Kyungsoo hangs up the call. 

Baekhyun tries to call him back but it immediately hangs up on him. Great, the guy he likes, likes him back but refuses to date him. Maybe Nayeon has more frozen yogurt. 

~=+•+=~

Turns out Nayeon did not have more frozen yogurt and with the way Baekhyun feels like he’s had his heart ripped out, he  _ needs _ frozen yogurt or alcohol but Baekhyun was informed they don’t have that here because it’s “poison”.

Baekhyun gets in the pod and asks it to take him to frozen yogurt, where ever that is and the pod somehow understands and brings him to a shop that seems a lot like an earth corner store. He walks in and the characteristic bell goes off. 

“Hello sir, how can I help you?” An employee asks. 

“Where’s the frozen yogurt?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Just in the freezer back there” the employee says pointing to a wall of freezers. 

“Thanks” Baekhyun smiles politely before walking over there. 

He just wants chocolate ice cream but of course, he can’t have what he wants. They have a variety of strange flavours, no chocolate (obviously) and no quill fruit either. He settles on something called “soul fruit” because it looks kind of like a banana. 

He brings it to the counter and pays for it with the small allowance Jihyo has given him for the week until he got paid by the police team, so much for that. 

Baekhyun walks back out of the store expecting the pod to be where he left it but it’s not there. Was that a no-parking zone?

“Byun Baekhyun?” A voice says from beside him and Baekhyun turns to face it. 

In front of him is a short man, about Kyungsoo’s height with lavender purple hair. There’s something familiar about this guy but Baekhyun can’t place it. Maybe he saw him at the precinct? The man is wearing clothes that are similar to police officers. 

“Yes?” Baekhyun finally responds confused. 

“Your pod was towed.” He answers “I’ll take you to the impound so you can pick it up.”

“Thanks” Baekhyun smiles. 

Baekhyun follows the man into a different pod and gets in with his regular level of difficulty. 

“So how did you know my name?” Baekhyun asks before seeing a blue flash in front of his eyes. 

Baekhyun feels the same world flipping feeling he did when he was in the crate. He tries to panic and get away but all he ends up doing is closing his eyes and falling over on the seat. It takes only a few seconds before Baekhyun loses consciousness entirely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dun! Sorry for the cliff hanger! I'll try posting a little bonus 5.5 chapter tomorrow at noon!


	7. Bonus Chapter (5.5)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is just a tiny little bonus chapter from Kyungsoo's POV between chapter 5 and 6!

Kyungsoo sits down at his deck and sighs, Baekhyun isn’t here yet. Usually, he comes in an hour after Kyungsoo’s shift starts. He’s not too sure what they’ll be doing today. The techs didn’t find anything on the computer but if they can get ahold of the security footage at the station they might be able to find something. If Baekhyun watches the footage and sees the person who smuggled him, it might jog his memory. It’s a long shot but it’s all they have. 

Kyungsoo starts writing up the security footage request form when a light starts blinking on his desk signalling that his captain wants to talk to him. He presses the button to make it stop and leaves his office to go meet with the captain. He walks into the captain's office. 

“Detective, do you have any leads on the smuggling case?” The captain asks and Kyungsoo takes a deep breath knowing the captain won’t be happy with his update. 

“The chatroom was untraceable sir.” Kyungsoo says “and we couldn’t find any record of a withdrawal other than Minseok so the smugglers must have hacked the system. The techs tried to find out how but they couldn’t.”

“So you have no leads is what you’re telling me?” The captain says auditorily. 

“We could pull the security footage” Kyungsoo suggests.

“What good would that do?.” The captain asks “There would be no way of knowing who the smuggler was.”

“Baekhyun might recognize the smuggler.” Kyungsoo answers. 

“The court will never agree to pull the footage if all you have is the possibility that a human recognizes his attacker he can’t even remember.” The captain sighs “You have to drop the case detective.”

“What?” Kyungsoo asks upset. 

“There aren’t any leads, it’s a cold case.” The captain answers “You have other cases with leads, you need to prioritize.”

“Prioritize? Baekhyun was stolen from his home and ho knows how many other humans were taken! This case is the priority. You can’t tell me to drop this!” Kyungsoo yells frustrated.

“You’re out of line detective” The captain answers upset “He’s not the only one suffering in this world, if I didn’t know better I’d think you’d gleamed on the human but that’s ridiculous.” 

“That’s not it, I just want to solve his case.” Kyungsoo says grinding his teeth hating the fact that his gleam probably does influence how dedicated he is to the case, but this is important and dropping it right away is ridiculous “I don’t give up on cases after a week!”

“Working on a case with no leads won’t help” the captain says calmly but Kyungsoo can tell he’s mad “Move on, that’s an order.” 

“Fine.” Kyungsoo says taking a deep breath, there's no way he's going to convince the captain and yelling more will probably just get him fired “I’ll drop the case.”

Kyungsoo walks out of the captains office in a huff and immediately calls Jongin in security. 

“Hey Jongin, I need a favour.”


	8. Déjà-vu

Baekhyun wakes up in the same place he did last time he was tranquillized, except this time he wakes up to Kyungsoo’s face, not Jihyo’s. 

“What happened?” Baekhyun says waking up. 

“You were attacked.” Kyungsoo answers “The smugglers probably didn’t like that we stole their product and tried to get you back. Luckily Jongin was nearby and he caught the guy before they took you.”

“And Jongin is?” Baekhyun asks.

“The officer who was in charge of your protection.” Kyungsoo answers “Now I have your attacker in lock up and I have to interrogate him, so if you’re awake now, I’ll go do that.” 

“Wait wait I had a security detail? I thought my case was dropped.” Baekhyun says confused. 

“That doesn’t mean I was going to let you run around unprotected. I  _ can’t _ do that, it’s just one of the fun perks of a gleam.” Kyungsoo says frustrated before sighing “Listen if you want to make of me just do it now so I can move on.” 

“Why would I make fun of you?” Baekhyun asks “I’ve been head over heels since I met you, it’s not one-sided Kyungsoo.”

“I-?” Kyungsoo clears his throat “I was not expecting that”

“Well I really like you so can we talk about the gleam now that you won’t hang up on me?” Baekhyun asks. 

Kyungsoo takes a deep breath and sits on the chair facing Baekhyun. 

“It’s a long story” Kyungsoo says sounding tired. 

“I’d like to hear it.” Baekhyun answers happily. Finally, Kyungsoo is going to open up and maybe this whole situation will make some sense. 

“When I was a teenager I was really excited to gleam.” Kyungsoo says looking down “I just wanted to find my perfect person and get married and have a happy little family. I found someone that I liked and we started dating. We dated for a year and I figured we’d gleam soon but turns out he already gleamed. With someone else. So he broke up with me and I took it really hard but I still kept looking for someone. I kept starting new relationships hoping they would work out because my person was out there somewhere, but all the relationships ended in messy breakups. After I finished school I thought I’d never find anyone and I stopped looking because it only caused me pain.”

“I’m so sorry Kyungsoo.” Baekhyun says getting up out of his chair to put a hand on Kyungsoo’s shoulder. 

“I focused on my career and realized I really didn’t need a relationship.” Kyungsoo continues “I liked my career, I liked helping people and gleams are overrated. Friends are just as great and I have really wonderful friends so why am I looking for anything else? Then one day I rescue some random human and he smiles at me once and I don’t know what to do. It seemed cruel. I spent all that time looking for someone and you weren’t even on this planet! I was happy being single and that’s when my world had to be flipped upside down. I tried to ignore it but that’s not how it works so I’m just stuck thinking lovey-dovey stuff all the time.” 

“I didn’t realize how complicated this is for you.” Baekhyun says softly “I guess it was just simple for me, I like you, you like me so we’ll see where this goes. I just didn’t know why you wouldn’t want to, I kinda thought it was my fault.”

“Nope” Kyungsoo says popping the p “Just me and my problems.”

“Well, we can just take it slow then.” Baekhyun smiles “Just keep it casual for a while to get used to it.” 

“Half of human marriages end in divorce” Kyungsoo points out “Gleams don’t fade Baekhyun, I don’t know what I would do if we broke up.”

“Damn ok let’s get really serious instead.” Baekhyun says not expecting that response “uhh there are studies showing gay marriage has lower divorce rates? And even if my eyes can’t turn green doesn’t mean I won’t feel the same way you do. Are you saying you’d rather we don’t date at all?”

“No” Kyungsoo mumbles  “we can talk about this later, my captain will be pissed if I don’t go interview the guy in lock up, wanna come?”

“I’m back on the case?” Baekhyun asks. 

“If you want to be” Kyungsoo answers. 

“Let’s interrogate him.” Baekhyun says getting up smiling.

They walk over to lock-up where the lavender haired man is sitting alone. The more Baekhyun looks at the guy the more he looks familiar until Baekhyun finally fragmented memories start playing in his head.

“Jeongho?” Baekhyun says remembering his name. 

“Hello Baekhyun.” Jeongho laughs. 

“You know him?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“He’s the one who captured me on earth.” Baekhyun explains “Seeing him kinda jogged my memory.”  


“If I cooperate will my years be reduced?” Jeongho asks. 

“You want to make a deal?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“Listen I know I’m getting arrested but I’m only the honey trap.” Jeongho says leaning back on the bench “I don’t know any of the people who handle this but I know the address that we ship the crates to, the real address.”

“And for the address, you want a reduced sentence?” Kyungsoo asks before pausing to think it over “If your address is real, I’ll put in a good word.”

“865 Corialis, it’s in Mueli district.” Jeongho answers and Kyungsoo sighs.

“What?” Baekhyun asks. 

“It’s 5 hours from here.” Kyungsoo answers.

“Work trip?” Baekhyun smiles “We can share a hotel room, you know to save money.” 

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and walks out of the room. 

“Should we talk about what we are to each other and everything now?” Baekhyun asks catching up to him. 

“No, you should go home and rest.” Kyungsoo says “We can talk about it when we’re in Mueli.”

“You didn’t need me to rest earlier.” Baekhyun points out. 

“That’s because... I miss you ok? I never thought I’d see you again and I was being selfish.” Kyungsoo answers “but you really should be resting.”

“Fine.” Baekhyun sighs “Can I at least get a goodbye kiss?”

Kyungsoo freezes and looks scared without saying anything. 

“It’s a joke” Baekhyun smiles “See you later Kyungsoo.”

~=+•+=~

Baekhyun walks down the train until Kyungsoo and him reach their seats. It turns out they bought some sort of little two-seat cabin, sort of like what you’d see on really fancy planes or a high tech version of the Hogwarts express. 

“So why did we pay with our own money?” Baekhyun asks as Kyungsoo and him take their seats on the train. 

“Because it would take over a week for the captain to go through all the paperwork to pay for not only a detective but also a consultant and I wasn’t willing to wait.” Kyungsoo explains “This case is time-sensitive.”

“At least the tickets are only like 20 bucks.” Baekhyun smiles “but why didn’t we take a plane? We could get there so much faster.”

“Planes are slow, lightning trains go 3600 km/h” Kyungsoo says looking through his carry on.

“So what are we going to do for 5 hours?” Baekhyun asks, looking around the pod that has nothing but seats and a little table.

“I have some movies and snacks” Kyungsoo says taking out a little button looking thing, he presses the center and it projects a screen onto the wall in front of them “These booths are soundproof so there’s no need for headphones.”

“Soundproof?” Baekhyun smirks. 

“Baekhyun.” Kyungsoo glares. 

“Ok ok” Baekhyun laughs “What movies?”

They watch two full movies. One of which has an actor that catches Baekhyun’s interest. Oh Sehun, he’s cute and very good at acting but that doesn’t really stop Baekhyun from getting bored. Since arriving on this planet Baekhyun has rarely been bored, but he’s definitely bored now. Turns out no matter how cool a pod a high tech pod is or how cute an actor is, he still gets tired of sitting in the same spot for 4 and a half hours.

“We should come up with a plan.” Baekhyun says “For when we get to  Mueli.”

“I have a hotel booked.” Kyungsoo answers. 

“Ok but I mean a detective plan.” Baekhyun laughs. 

“I looked it up and the address Jeongho gave us is a pet store.” Kyungsoo says quickly. 

“A pet store?” Baekhyun asks “They’re selling humans as pets?”

“There’s a reason I’m trying to stop them Baekhyun.” Kyungsoo says seriously “If you don’t feel comfortable helping me with this part I’d understand.”

“Just tell me what I’d have to do” Baekhyun says. 

“Ok well, the plan I made is that we’d go in a set up a buy. I had Jeongho contact the people at the pet store so they know we’re a client and won’t be suspicious that we’re undercover.” Kyungsoo explains “I have an appointment with them tomorrow, mainly to debate price.”

“So we’re going to go buy a human.” Baekhyun repeats “and how’s that going to help us.”

“First of all, it gives us proof that they are smuggler humans.” Kyungsoo explains “and we’ll be able to track the funds and hopefully find the people in charge of this.”

“What’s the chance they find out I’m human and kidnap me?” Baekhyun asks.

“I don’t know how they’d be able to tell without a blood test but I promise there’s no way anyone is kidnapping you while I’m beside you.” Kyungsoo says. 

“Then I’m in.” Baekhyun smiles “Can we pick our undercover stories?”

“I don’t think we really need to? I mean we’d just go to the shop and set up the buy.” Kyungsoo explains “I do already have a fake name though, D.O”

“That’s lame.” Baekhyun pouts “Come on Kyungsoo it’s my first time going undercover and I really want to do this. We don’t have to use it but we could still make up some elaborate backstory. Even just to pass the time.”

“What do you have in mind?” Kyungsoo asks intrigued.

“Obviously you’d be some rich trust fund kid who’s never been told no-” Baekhyun starts. 

“Does it look like I’d be a spoiled brat?” Kyungsoo says raising an eyebrow. 

“Are you saying you don’t have any acting skills?” Baekhyun teases. 

“Well if I’m a spoiled brat then you’d be what? My arm candy?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“You’d like that wouldn’t you?” Baekhyun winks. 

“Here’s a much more believable story, I’m a CEO and you can be my butler.” Kyungsoo counters. 

“There’s absolutely no way I’m going to be your butler.” Baekhyun frowns “I’ll be your husband.”

“Husband?” Kyungsoo asks trying to mask his surprise.

“It’s a perfect cover.” Baekhyun explains “Who better to help you find you a highly illegal pet than your husband. It could be some sort of fucked up wedding gift.”

“I’d like to disagree but it’s not a bad plan.” Kyungsoo nods “The kind of scum that buy people, probably would buy one as a gift.”

“I’ve always found the idea of a wedding gift a little odd. I mean the wedding itself is already supposed to be the best day of your life, why would you need a gift on top of that? From your spouse anyways, guests should give gifts. If I were to give my husband something on my wedding day it wouldn’t be something you could buy, there’s the obvious  _ gift _ ” Baekhyun pauses to smirk suggestively “but other than that maybe something meaningful... like an emerald.”

“An emerald? You’d have to buy that and it’s just a pretty rock” Kyungsoo laughs “You didn’t quite prove your point.”

“Uh... it was just the first thing I thought of... it’s the colour your eyes were when we uh met -” Baekhyun stops as Kyungsoo places a hand on his cheek “Kyungsoo?”

Kyungsoo doesn’t say anything, instead, he leans forward and brings his lips to Baekhyun’s. Before Baekhyun really understands what’s happening, Kyungsoo’s kissing Baekhyun passionately. Baekhyun responds quickly wrapping his arms around Kyungsoo’s neck. The angle is a bit weird since they’re still in their own seats but Kyungsoo quickly fixes that by getting up and breaking the kiss briefly before taking a seat on Baekhyun’s lap. 

Baekhyun gets so caught up in the cute boy in his lap that he never questions why it’s happening. After a couple of minutes thought Baekhyun’s curiosity gets the best of him and he pulls away and places a hand on Kyungsoo’s chest. 

“Uh” Baekhyun chuckles “Not that I’m against it but why?”

“I just really like you.” Kyungsoo smiles “I don’t know how to explain it but sometimes you’re just being... you and I’m reminded of how much I like you and since you like me too, I just gave in.”

“Does this mean we’re dating?” Baekhyun says before smiling and leaning in. 

“Yes, I'd like that. I can’t keep repressing the gleam and honestly, I don’t want to anymore” Kyungsoo smiles before closing the gap. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooooooo they're dating ;)


	9. D.O and hubby

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo walk up to the pet store. Baekhyun wasn’t really expecting a very basic looking pet store but that’s what they are walking towards. A large pet store sign with the words “Pet Paradise” which is a little ironic considering it’s the front of a smuggling ring. When they walk into the little shop Baekhyun is confronted with so many alien creatures in little terrariums and he has to force himself not to react to keep his cover. 

“Who are we supposed to talk to honey?” Baekhyun says wrapping his arms around Kyungsoo cutely keeping up his rich husband cover.

“Honey?” Kyungsoo whispers.

“It’s a pet name.” Baekhyun says before kissing Kyungsoo cheek “Speaking of pets how are we going to get ours?”

“Can I help you with anything?” A teenage looking girl says walking up to them in the pet store uniform. 

“No, we’re looking for-” Baekhyun starts. 

“Are you Semi?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“Yup!” The girl responds with a bright smile. 

“Jeongho sent me” Kyungsoo responds seriously “I’m D.O and this is my husband. We’re looking for something... exotic.”

“I can see what I can do” she smiles with the same happy smile. 

The girl walks towards the back of the little shop into an area that says employees only. 

“Are we sure she’s the person we’re looking for?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Looks can be deceiving, she knows all about it.” Kyungsoo answers honestly “When she comes back, make a scene about needing to see your new pet. We need to see a human in person here.”

“Understood” Baekhyun nods.

After a few minutes the girl comes back to the couple with the same cute smile that Baekhyun is really starting to hate. How can she smile like that when she knows what she’s doing? 

“Good news! We have something that you two will probably really enjoy. Is there anything you’re looking for specifically? Boy or Girl? Any height you’d prefer?” Semi asks. 

“Do you have a preference?” Kyungsoo asks turning to Baekhyun. 

“Can we see them? I want to pick one out myself.” Baekhyun says in a whiney voice. 

“We can have your pet sent to your house within the week” Semi explains “As soon as the payment goes through, we’ll send it.”

“But I need to see one before picking” Baekhyun whines “Who could buy something like that without seeing it in person? How will I know if I really want it?”

Baekhyun tries desperately not to cringe referring to a living human being as an “it” but Kyungsoo told him to make a scene and what better than a spoiled whiny husband. 

“We don’t have any here today but you can look through our wide selection. We keep photos in a catalogue.” Semi responds. 

“Is that online?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“No” Semi says before smiling again “I think you can appreciate our discretion, we don’t want to be posting unclaimed pet photos online. The future owners wouldn’t appreciate that.”

“Of course” Kyungsoo nods. 

“The catalogue is very useful when picking your pet” Semi encourages “After you pick one we have it sent directly to your house, it’s simpler that way.”

“No” Baekhyun says stubbornly “If I can’t see one in person, I don’t want to get one.”

“If you pick one from the catalogue I can bring it to this location within the week.” Semi reasons “Then you can see it and decide if you want to go through with the purchase. Would that work?”

“Yes” Kyungsoo nods. 

Baekhyun just smiles and leans on Kyungsoo affectionately playing his part. 

“Alright, I’ll bring you back to our VIP room.” Semi smiles before turning back towards the employees only door. 

As they follow Semi to the back Baekhyun starts realizing he’s going to see humans, probably very unhappy humans in a shopping catalogue and he’ll have to act like he’s picking a rescue puppy to adopt. The thought of it makes his stomach churn. Kyungsoo seems to notice Baekhyun’s unease and squeezes his hand to comfort him. 

“Thanks” Baekhyun whispers.

Once they pass through the door they head down a hallway. They pass a bunch of doors that seem to lead to various storage facilities but at the end of the hall, there’s a door with an electronic lock. Semi places her hand on the lock pad and it lights up and scans her hand. The door unlocks and they all walk into a fancy looking room. Inside there are a few couches, a coffee table and most noticeably a holding cell with clear plastic walls. Inside there’s a bed and toilet, clearly, that’s where they keep humans when they have them here. 

“Ok so here’s the catalogue.” Semi says opening up a scrapbook. 

Once she does Baekhyun is immediately uncomfortable. He thought they might have had 2-6 humans but there are pages and pages. Each page has a photo, passport-like description and information on where they were taken from. Seems like they like to abduct orphans which makes Baekhyun feel even more uncomfortable. There are probably dozens of people in this book. Some of them were taken 6 years ago and have been living as zoo animals since. It takes all of Baekhyun’s force to keep smiling excitedly while flipping through the pages. 

“Do you have a price range?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“They range from 20k to 50k depending on how long they’ve been here and how unique they are.” Semi explains before taking the book and flipping the pages to one in particular “This one has been here the longest so he’s most tame. Due to his unique looks and personality he would usually be around 50k but since he’s being resold, we can probably part with him for 40. That’s a pretty good deal.”

“He’s a reject then?” Kyungsoo asks “and you’re still charging almost full price?” 

“He was returned because the owner lost interest in collecting rare creatures. I assure you he’s well behaved.” Semi insists. 

“Bae- Honey what do you think?” Kyungsoo asks turning towards Baekhyun. 

Baekhyun continues to stare at the image before realizing Kyungsoo spoke to him. 

“Huh?” Baekhyun says trying to repress his emotions. 

“He seems quite entranced by this one.” Semi smiles “seems like a winner.”

“Do you want to get this one?” Kyungsoo asks again with a look Baekhyun can’t quite decipher. 

“Yes” Baekhyun says sounding unsure “Absolutely.”

“Well, that’s settled then” Semi smiles “I can call you when he’s ready if you give me your number.”

“No” Kyungsoo responds “I’d rather keep this as anonymous as possible so we’ll just come back in a week when you know he’ll be here.” 

“Pleasure doing business with you Mr. D.O” Semi smiles. 

Kyungsoo and Baekhyun walk out of the room and towards the front of the store. They leave and get into Kyungsoo’s rental pod. 

“What was that?” Kyungsoo asks “we should have gotten the cheapest one. It doesn’t make sense to pay more. Once we bust them all the humans will be free.”

“I knew him, Kyungsoo.” Baekhyun says softly “I grew up with him. I uh never thought I’d see him again after he disappeared.”

“Oh” Kyungsoo says changing his tone “I’m sorry.”

“Um yeah” Baekhyun says feeling a bit weird. 

“We don’t have to talk about it.” Kyungsoo says sympathetically. 

“Thanks” Baekhyun says before changing the subject “So what do we do in the meantime before going to pick him up?” 

“We can do some research on the pet shop and the employees.” Kyungsoo answers “any evidence we can get on them will be helpful for the case.”

“Sounds like a lot of paperwork.” Baekhyun laughs feeling a bit better. 

“We can go on a date when we’re off the clock” Kyungsoo smiles. 

“I’m liking this trip already” Baekhyun says before leaning in a pecking Kyungsoo lightly on the lips. 

~=+•+=~

Despite the ridiculous amount of boring paperwork the trip does end up being pretty fun. After 5 pm each day they just go out into the town together. For once Baekhyun isn’t the only culturally uneducated one, apparently, when you travel halfway across the globe (literally the other side of the world, Baekhyun looked it up) there’s a whole nother very different culture. Both Kyungsoo and Baekhyun try the new foods and clothes and enjoy Mueli together. Baekhyun wonders if Kyungsoo's gleam has some sort of effect on him because he hasn’t felt so comfortable with a boyfriend since... ever. 

“Can we watch a movie?” Baekhyun asks Kyungsoo from the couch of Kyungsoo’s hotel suit. 

“Are you going to fall asleep during it again?” Kyungsoo smiles. “Why did we get two rooms if you spend half the week sleeping on my couch?” 

“I told you we should have only gotten one.” Baekhyun smiles as Kyungsoo sits down beside him. 

Baekhyun reaches out to grab Kyungsoo’s face and kiss him lovingly. 

“And how would I explain that to the government when they reimburse me?” Kyungsoo smiles. 

“We’d save them money, why should they bother asking why?” Baekhyun says before putting his arm around Kyungsoo and snuggling beside him. 

Kyungsoo picks out a random movie and the couple watches it. Kyungsoo has certainly noticed Baekhyun’s interest in his favourite urali actor, Oh Sehun. So naturally, Kyungsoo picks another movie where he’s one of the leads and Baekhyun is really thankful. 

“Are you ever jealous?” Baekhyun asks as Sehun takes his shirt off during the show. 

“Of his abs?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“Of the fact that I like him so much” Baekhyun clarifies. 

“Not really” Kyungsoo answers “it’s kind of cute.”

“Me admiring another guy is cute?” Baekhyun asks a little confused. 

“Should I really be upset over a little celebrity crush?” Kyungsoo laughs “You've never even met him.”

“What if I had?” Baekhyun asks sincerely “what if we had a history?”

“I still wouldn’t be jealous.” Kyungsoo smiles “he would be jealous because you’re with me and not him.”

“Is not being jealous a urali thing?” Baekhyun asks cuddling back against Kyungsoo’s chest. 

“No” Kyungsoo laughs “We’re pretty jealous, mostly people who haven’t gleamed.”

“I wish I could gleam too.” Baekhyun says his heart twinging with pain “I saw how much it hurt Nayeon when she thought her girlfriend didn’t gleam with her.”

“I try not to think about it” Kyungsoo says quietly while running his hand through Baekhyun’s hair “it’s not as bad as with a urali though because it’s not like you could but haven’t if that makes sense. I like to think you’ve gleamed in your own way.”

“I think I might have” Baekhyun says looking up at Kyungsoo “I have some... trust issues usually but I haven’t with you. If I’m perfect for you then you’re perfect for me.”

Kyungsoo leans in and kisses Baekhyun him slowly. He can feel Kyungsoo smile into the kiss which makes his heart flutter wildly. As weird as it might sound, Baekhyun is so happy he got abducted that day. His life has gotten so much better. Not even just because of his wonderful boyfriend, but he loves his new family with Jihyo and her daughters and his job is everything he’s imagined and more. Everything’s perfect.

After the movie ends, Baekhyun crawls directly into Kyungsoo’s bed without even asking. Kyungsoo just rolls his eyes and changes into PJs before joining him. Baekhyun immediately wraps himself around Kyungsoo snuggling up close. 

“You’ve been really clingy recently” Kyungsoo notes “it’s nice but does this have anything to do with the human we’re going to rescue? I feel like since you saw him in that catalogue you’ve been different. Scared.”

Baekhyun frowns. Sometimes he doesn’t like how Kyungsoo can always seem to read him like a book, but he should probably stop putting this conversation off. 

“I am scared” Baekhyun answers “We were... really close. It really hurt when he left and I’m not sure I’m ready to see him again.”

“I’m sorry Baekhyun” Kyungsoo whispers. 

“It’s not your fault and I’ll be ok” Baekhyun answers holding Kyungsoo a little tighter. 

“You don’t always have to be ok” Kyungsoo answers “it’s ok to feel scared or hurt and I wouldn’t blame you. I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”

“We were dating” Baekhyun admits softly as he feels his eyes start to water “it just- it really hurt.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t say anything. Instead, he just rubs Baekhyun’s back to comfort him and Baekhyun’s even more thankful to have him. Baekhyun was so scared to tell Kyungsoo, he was scared Kyungsoo would get mad or accuse him of still being in love but Kyungsoo’s nothing but supportive and it makes him feel loved and safe. It’s exactly what he needs. 

“I’m sorry I’m being so dramatic” Baekhyun laughs wiping his eyes. 

“You’re not being dramatic Baekhyun.” Kyungsoo answers “You lost someone important to you and you’re being reminded of that. Being upset is perfectly normal.”

Baekhyun doesn’t say anything, he's just surprised about just how perfect Kyungsoo’s words are. He smiles before kissing Kyungsoo. He very quickly starts kissing him more passionately pouring all his emotion into it. He can’t get over he feels with Kyungsoo and he never ever wants to let him go. Baekhyun has never been more sure that even if he can’t technically gleam, Kyungsoo is his soulmate. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was kinda just fluff and fun but it's nice to have some fluff every once and a while


	10. Search and Rescue

“Wakey wakey!” Semi says in her standard cute voice as if she’s a friend and not someone who’s about to sell the human in the holding cell. 

He sits up and looks around. When the guy meets Baekhyun’s eyes his heart sinks. 

“Baek-”

“Let’s get him!” Baekhyun yells “D.O I want him. I really want this one, he’s perfect.”

“Great it’s decided” Kyungsoo smiles. 

Baekhyun’s not sure if Kyungsoo said anything else because attention turns right back to the man in the cell. Park Chanyeol. Baekhyun tried to prepare himself during the week to see him again but it didn’t work at all. Baekhyun can feel all his memories surfacing and overwhelming him. He wasn’t expecting it to affect him way more than a did during the week but seeing him in person is so much worse. When Chanyeol disappeared it took years for Baekhyun to get over it. The police barely cared because “orphans run away” but Baekhyun was so sure there was more to it. Chanyeol’s disappearance was so unimportant to the police that it didn’t even make the papers, not even a cheap online journal. After a few weeks, they stopped looking for him. After a few months, Baekhyun just assumed he had died. 

“Are you crying?” Kyungsoo whispers clearly concerned but also reminding Baekhyun that they cannot blow their cover. 

“Yeah, I’m just so happy to get a new pet.” Baekhyun forces a smile “Can we bring him home now?”

“If you want to pay now you can” Semi smiles. 

“I’ll do that, you just go play with our pet.” Kyungsoo says to Baekhyun. 

“Great, let’s just go to the front and leave your husband with his pet.” Semi smiles. 

Semi and Kyungsoo leave the room, the second the door closes Baekhyun pushes his emotions down and speaks up. 

“I work with the police.” Baekhyun explains “The guy with me is a detective and we’re working on bringing this smuggling ring down. We’re going to buy you so you’ll be free.”

“This might sound weird but” Chanyeol says looking confused “You look exactly like this guy I knew on earth”

“Chanyeol, I am the guy you knew on earth. They abducted me too but the police got ahold of my shipment crate.” Baekhyun explains before pausing for a second “I thought you were dead.”

“Not dead, just living as a zoo animal for 10 years.” Chanyeol frowns looking at the ground. 

“Well not anymore” Baekhyun says not willing to think too much about what Chanyeol said.

“Um just so you know” Chanyeol says softly “I didn’t mean what I said to you. I never would have said it if I knew that was the last time we’d talk.”

“Can we not bring that up please” Baekhyun says taking a deep breath “Let’s just focus on getting you free ok? Just shut up and play your part.”

After a couple of minutes Semi and Kyungsoo come back. Semi unlocks Chanyeol’s cell and puts one of those weird bracelet things that Jihyo put on Baekhyun before they went out to the garden. 

“Pleasure doing business with you D.O” Semi smiles and Baekhyun hopes it’s the last time he has to see it. 

“Come on, let’s go.” Kyungsoo says to both Baekhyun and Chanyeol. 

Once they leave the pet store they all get into the pod Kyungsoo rented. Chanyeol has a lot of trouble getting in, probably because of his height and general weirdness about pods. 

“I’m guessing Baekhyun told you we’re not keeping you as a pet?” Kyungsoo says to Chanyeol once the door is closed as he reaches to take off the bracelet Semi put on Chanyeol. 

“Yeah he told me all about it ” Chanyeol says awkwardly “Thanks.”

There’s an awkward silence that fills the pod and Baekhyun prays to god that Kyungsoo puts some music to end it. Instead, he just gets a bunch of glances from Chanyeol which just make him want to crawl into a ball and die. Kyungsoo seems almost just as uncomfortable as Baekhyun but of course, he has to be a responsible cop and not let that get in the way of his work. 

“Baekhyun do you mind telling me a bit more about him?” Kyungsoo asks Baekhyun, obviously not knowing how to address Chanyeol “like his name?”

Baekhyun shuts his eyes for a second revelling in his misery. He does not want to have this conversation. 

“His name is Chanyeol” Baekhyun before mumbling the rest “and um you already know he’s my ex from high school so yeah there’s not much else.”

“We never actually broke up” Chanyeol points out. 

“Can we not talk about this?” Baekhyun laughs feeling really uncomfortable. 

“Sure” Kyungsoo says softly “So now that we’ve saved him and I recorded the whole thing, we can go back home. I’ll book our tickets for tomorrow.”

“What about me?” Chanyeol asks. 

“You have two choices, you can live in the urali society with a guardian-” Kyungsoo starts.

“Like Baekhyunnie?” Chanyeol asks. 

“I haven’t decided yet.” Baekhyun lies, the truth is he has but he doesn’t have the courage to talk about with Kyungsoo yet. 

“Or you can live in one of the human cities” Kyungsoo finishes. 

“But I don’t have any money” Chanyeol says. 

“Don’t worry about that, we’ll work something out.” Kyungsoo smiles “You’re far from the first human to show up here without any money.” 

“Can we get another room for Chanyeol?” Baekhyun asks “Or is the hotel booked for tonight?”

“I can just room with Baekhyun” Chanyeol offers “I don’t want to cost you anything.”

“I just paid a fortune to get you out of that place, a hotel room is nothing in comparison.” Kyungsoo smiles 

“Wait you paid 40k$ with your money?” Baekhyun asks shocked. 

“The government will reimburse me later... probably.” Kyungsoo explains “I had to get Chanyeol out without blowing our cover so it was really the only option.”

“Damn well I’m really in your debt then.” Chanyeol laughs. 

“It’s my job” Kyungsoo says without really looking at Chanyeol losing the professional image he tried to keep. 

After that Kyungsoo does put on some music and Baekhyun is so incredibly thankful. 

~=+•+=~

_ “Prom night?” The motel clerk asks looking at Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s suits “Where are your dates?” _

_ “We’d like one room.” Chanyeol says ignoring the question and handing the women the money.  _

_ “Oh” She answers taking it before handing them a key “Room 102. Enjoy.” _

_ Baekhyun smiles before looking at Chanyeol excitedly. The couple walks over to their room and unlock the door. Once they get in the room, Baekhyun wraps his arms around Chanyeol’s neck and pulls him down for a passionate kiss. Without even breaking the kiss Baekhyun wastes no time pulling off Chanyeol’s suit jacket and tie. Chanyeol follows Baekhyun's lead and starts unbuttoning Baekhyun’s shirt.  _

_ “I love you so much” Baekhyun says breathing hard before kissing Chanyeol again.  _

_ “I love you too” Chanyeol smiles as he pulls away “I’ve loved you since the day I met you.” _

_ “Chanyeol we were 6” Baekhyun says before attacking Chanyeol’s neck.  _

_ “Ok fine I’ve loved you since valentine’s day when we were 15.” Chanyeol says running his hand through Baekhyun’s hair “First valentine’s day when I wasn’t single.” _

_ “Chanyeol you’re ruining the mood” Baekhyun smiles pulling away to look at Chanyeol’s face “but that was a really cute date.” _

_ Chanyeol responds by pulling Baekhyun back for another heated kiss. Baekhyun runs his hands down Chanyeol’s now bare chest.  _

_ “I can’t wait to move in with you” Baekhyun whispers.  _

_ Chanyeol hums in agreement as they continue to kiss before the words register in his mind.  _

_ “Wait what?” Chanyeol asks, pulling away.  _

_ “After we finish high school, you’ll move out of your foster home and we can live together.” Baekhyun smiles.  _

_ “We never agreed on that” Chanyeol says unhappily.  _

_ “Well no but what else would we do?” Baekhyun asks running his hand down Chanyeol’s shoulder “We love each other and it’ll save rent so what's the problem?”  _

_ “I just don’t know if we’re ready for that” Chanyeol says taking a small step back putting space between them “we’re still really young.” _

_ “You’re not ready to live with me?” Baekhyun asks feeling some anger bubble up.  _

_ “I don’t know I just don’t want to get that serious at 18” Chanyeol answers.  _

_ “We’re not in a serious relationship?” Baekhyun scoffs “What have we been doing for 3 years? Just messing around?” _

_ “I just don’t want to commit so young” Chanyeol repeats.  _

_ “Good for you” Baekhyun says frowns looking away from Chanyeol before walking towards the bed to sit alone.  _

_ “Baekhyun-“ Chanyeol starts.  _

_ “Did you think about what I wanted?” Baekhyun asks trying to repress the lump in his throat “How I might have seen us and our future?” _

_ “I don’t see why we should be thinking about that right now” Chanyeol answers.  _

_ “If we don’t want the same things out of a relationship then maybe we shouldn’t be in one.” Baekhyun glares at Chanyeol.  _

_ “Don’t be dramatic” Chanyeol sighs “come on let’s not ruin the night.” _

_ “Dramatic?” Baekhyun scoffs getting really angry “I thought we were going to start our life together. Leave the foster system and have our own life but now you’re telling me I’m still going to be on my own? I don’t think it’s dramatic to not want to have sex right now Chanyeol.” _

_ “We already paid for the room though can’t we just deal with this later?” Chanyeol asks frustrated.  _

_ “Get out” Baekhyun says hurt.  _

_ “What?” Chanyeol asks.  _

_ “Just get the fuck out” Baekhyun repeats “that’s what you want to do anyways right? Leave me? Just leave now and stop wasting my time.” _

_ Chanyeol rolls his eyes and turns the doorknob.  _

_ “Just call me when you're done throwing a tantrum.” Chanyeol says before leaving the room.  _

_ Baekhyun lays back on the shitty cheap bed and let’s his tears roll down his cheeks slowly as he thinks about how his life is falling apart _ . 

Baekhyun is shaken from his pain ridden memory dream as a loud knock echoes through the hotel room. 

Baekhyun has never been so happy to be rudely woken up by a knock on the door. Baekhyun sleepily gets out of bed and checks through the peephole to see who’s at the door. 

“Chanyeol?” Baekhyun asks opening the door. 

“Yeah I couldn’t sleep and I just really need to talk to you.” Chanyeol answers. 

Baekhyun has a feeling it’s not going to be a conversation he’ll enjoy but it was bound to happen eventually. 

“Sure” Baekhyun says quietly.

“I spent way too much of the last 10 years thinking about how I lived on earth. How I saw the world, my priorities and the dumb decisions I made as a kid. I regret a lot of what happened but nothing haunted me more than what happened the night I was abducted. I was just scared and acting irrationally. I’ve thought about this a lot and I know I would have come back to you. Even if you didn’t call me. Since I got here there was nothing I wanted more than to be back with you in that shitty motel.” Chanyeol says stepping into the room “I know it’s been a while Baekhyun but don’t you think we should try again?”

“I’m dating Kyungsoo.” Baekhyun deadpans. 

“Oh I thought-” Chanyeol starts but Baekhyun cuts him off. 

“Even if I wasn’t, I don’t think I could date you again.” Baekhyun says pressing his lips together “There’s too much history between us, too much pain. You know after you were gone I thought about it a lot too and it ruined me. I couldn’t find you and I blamed myself. I called you every day after that hoping one day you’d pick up. I thought you left because of me and... I didn’t know if you were safe. You were the only person I loved. When I lost you I lost everything. I know you suffered here being locked up but I suffered on earth too. It’s great that you’ve grown as a person and that you didn’t mean to hurt me but that doesn’t change how I feel. It doesn’t change the damage that was done. I just don’t think I could look at you and not think about that time. It was the worst year of my life.”

“If I hadn’t been abducted do you think we would have had a chance?” Chanyeol asks in a soft voice. 

“Probably but that’s not what happened. We can’t change the past, it’s just better to move on.” Baekhyun says trying not to cry. 

“Are you saying we can’t even be friends?” Chanyeol says his eyes filling with tears.

Despite all the pain, he still always cared about Chanyeol. Chanyeol was his first love and he’ll probably never really get over it. The more Baekhyun thinks about it the more it gets hard to think about letting Chanyeol leave again. It might be better for both of them but if it’s better then why does it hurt so much?

“I don’t know” Baekhyun whispers “Maybe we can just start over, we’re on a new planet. We can have a new life.”

“We were friends before we were together” Chanyeol smiles as a tear runs down his face. 

“Yeah” Baekhyun says smiling thinking about their childhood.

“If I moved to a human city would we still see each other?” Chanyeol asks. 

“Haven’t you seen the tech here?” Baekhyun laughs lightening the mood “You could probably be halfway across the globe and I could meet up with you for a weekend.”

“Good point” Chanyeol smiles “Well uh I guess we should get to sleep.”

“Get back to sleep for some of us” Baekhyun jokes.

Chanyeol smiles lightly before leaving Baekhyun’s room.


	11. Hand off

Baekhyun watches as Chanyeol walks into Jihyo’s office. He’ll probably get all the same speech Baekhyun got, minus the “you’re on another planet” part cause he already knows that. Then he’ll be given the choice to live here or in a human city. Unlike Baekhyun who was an active witness and now police consultant, there’s no reason for Chanyeol to need to wait to make his decision. It’s not like it’s irreversible anyways, Jihyo explained that like any sort of living arrangement it’s open to change. 

It hasn’t been long since they rescued Chanyeol but Baekhyun already feels better about the whole thing. When he thinks back to some of the reasons why Chanyeol leaving hurt so much it came down to how important Chanyeol was to him and how he felt like he had lost the only good thing in his life but it’s different now. When he gets upset, he has Kyungsoo and Jihyo who are both wonderful. He’s better at handling his emotions now too. So it hurts but it’s a lot more manageable than he thought it was originally. 

“Has Chanyeol decided what where he’s going to live?” Kyungsoo asks as he walks beside Baekhyun. 

“He’s going to live in New LA.” Baekhyun answers turning to face Kyungsoo “Still pretty close but free from needing a guardian.”

Baekhyun can tell Kyungsoo is on the verge of saying something but holding it back, so he changes the subject. 

“So we’re tracking the payment?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Yeah it’s still held up in the central bank but it should be sent out to whatever or whoever is in charge of this smuggling ring soon.” Kyungsoo says before he starts walking back to his office. 

Once they both sit in his office they go back to what they’ve been doing all day. Sitting and waiting. 

“Baekhyun?” Chanyeol asks from outside the office “Can we talk?”

Baekhyun nods and gets up out of his chair. He meets Chanyeol in a semi-private area of the hallway. 

“I’ll be moving tomorrow probably” Chanyeol says breaking the silence. 

“That soon?” Baekhyun asks a little shocked. 

“Yeah, apparently they are ready for this sort of thing.” Chanyeol smiles awkwardly “I just wanted to say that I do really mean it when I say I want to stay friends. You’re kinda the only person I know here so I’d really like it if we could stay in touch.”

“Of course” Baekhyun smiles, it might be hard at first but Baekhyun’s really willing to make the effort to be friends with Chanyeol “I can probably give you some tips on living here but then again you’ll be living in a human city so it should be pretty similar to earth.”

“That’s what I’ve heard” Chanyeol smiles “well I just wanted to say that so you can go back to your detective job, I’ll call you once I’ve moved in.”

“Holo-call me! I want a 3D tour of your place” Baekhyun says excitedly. 

“I’ll do that” Chanyeol smiles before walking away. 

When Baekhyun walks back into Kyungsoo office, Kyungsoo is at his computer looking very attentive. 

“What happened?” Baekhyun asks walking toward Kyungsoo. 

“The transfer went through” Kyungsoo says still glaring at the computer. 

“That’s great! So we know who’s in charge!” Baekhyun says excitedly running over to see. 

“Not quite” Kyungsoo answers “The second it went through I was blocked out of the system.”

“So then you just have to get back in” Baekhyun says getting a bit worried. 

“Yeah” Kyungsoo says signing in “It’s just really suspicious timing.” 

Once Kyungsoo signs in, the webpage loads a mostly blank page. The bank name, date and account are all that’s on the screen. All the transactions that used to be there are gone.

“We got hacked” Kyungsoo says angrily. 

“What?” Baekhyun asks “How? The website or the precinct?”

“I don’t know” Kyungsoo says typing something into the computer that Baekhyun doesn’t understand. 

Kyungsoo continues to type whatever he’s typing into the computer until it spits out multiple error messages. Kyungsoo sighs before calling Yixing. 

“Yixing we’ve been hacked, I can’t get the black box, I’m going to need you to do diagnostics.” Kyungsoo says to Yixing over the phone “Let everyone know there’s been a security breach.”

“On it” Yixing answers before hanging up. 

“Could you recover the data?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Not exactly.” Kyungsoo answers. “But we can go to the bank and see if they still have the information. It’ll take time but we should be able to track it down.”

“Let’s go then.” Baekhyun says getting up. 

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo immediately leave the precinct and head to the bank. Throughout the whole ride, Baekhyun can feel the tension. Kyungsoo doesn’t smile once and Baekhyun wants to reach out to comfort him but he doesn’t think it will do much good. Once they get the information from the bank they’ll be able to take a breath. 

They walk into the bank which looks very strange but the differences of this planet don’t even phase Baekhyun anymore. Instead of high ceilings and marble or a professional clean open room with booths like banks on earth, this bank is much more compact. It’s more like a large hallway with ATMs and booths along the sides than a room. 

Kyungsoo walks up to the first booth and pushes a button to summon a teller. 

“Hello my name is detective Do Kyungsoo, I’m here about the payment we were tracking.” Kyungsoo says to the man. 

“I don’t know anything about that but our servers are down at the moment.” The tell smiles politely.

“They hacked the bank too” Baekhyun sighs. 

“I figured they would but it was worth a shot.” Kyungsoo says upset “I’ll call the techs to come to check it out.”

Kyungsoo pulls at his phone but before he can make the call, it’s already ringing.

“Yixing?” Kyungsoo answers “Why are you calling with your cell?”

“I don’t want anyone in the precinct hearing this” Yixing answers ominously “Just come to my apartment and I’ll explain.”

“Ok, we’ll be right over.”

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo go back to their pod before heading over to Yixing’s house. The weird phone call has made Kyungsoo a bit worried about what Yixing is going to tell them. 

Once they get there Kyungsoo knocks on the door. Yixing opens it and invites them in. He doesn’t say much but he looks a bit nervous.   
  


“Can I get you guys anything to drink?” Yixing asks politely “Water?”

“No, we’re ok.” Kyungsoo answers “Why did you ask us to come here?”

Yixing sits down on his couch and takes a breath. 

“Kyungsoo it’s someone in our precinct. I ran the checks 10 times but there’s no doubt about it.” Yixing says “I know it’s not you or Baekhyun but we can’t trust anyone else.”

“How can we trust you?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Well I guess you can’t” Yixing answers “but you don’t need to, you can check me if you want, check everyone in the precinct if you have to.”

“I trust you Yixing don’t worry.” Kyungsoo answers “You’re constantly working overtime, you wouldn’t have the time to pull something like this off. We’ll need your help though, can you try to track what computer deleted the information?”

“I’m already running that test, we should get the result soon.” Yixing answers “Whoever did it knew our system but not super well. They left bread crumbs, I just need to track them.”

“Great keep us up to date.” Kyungsoo nods. 

A loud bing goes off from Yixing’s laptop. Yixing walks over to it and reads the screen. 

“It was done from the captain’s computer.” Yixing says looking confused “Who would break into the captain’s office to hack the computers?”

“No one” Kyungsoo says seriously “He was in his office when we were hacked.”

“You’re not seriously saying the captain is responsible?” Yixing asks. 

“It could have been done remotely though right?” Baekhyun suggests “They just used his computer.”

“No this was done from the computer itself.” Yixing says “I just can’t believe he-”

“He forced me to drop the case” Kyungsoo says angrily “One day without leads and he forced me to drop it. This whole time I’ve been jumping through hoops to get the right forms and requests to be allowed to prevent kidnappings and it’s his fault.”

“We can’t assume it’s really him Kyungsoo maybe he was tricked and got a virus somehow.” Yixing defends “Innocent until proven guilty.”

“We both know the captain wouldn’t get a virus” Kyungsoo says taking a deep breath “I’m going to arrest him.”

“Are you sure that’s the best idea, shouldn’t we get more proof?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Baekhyun’s right, you should get a warrant first. You can go through his house and look for more evidence.” Yixing suggests. 

“If you get the captain’s approval for a warrant then he’ll know and it’s pointless. ” Kyungsoo explains “If he knows about it, he’ll burn the evidence. He knows exactly how the system works.”

“If the money didn’t lead back to him he wouldn’t have hacked the computer.” Baekhyun points out “We’re missing something about the money trail.”

“Something has to tie him to the company.” Kyungsoo agrees “Yixing can you hack the fiances for Pet Paradise?”

“Yes, but without the warrant it won’t be evidence in court.” Yixing answers. 

“Kind of a chicken and egg thing.” Baekhyun sighs. 

“What’s a chicken?” Yixing asks. 

“Earth animal doesn’t matter. The point is we’re stuck.” Baekhyun explains. 

“I can hand the case off to another precinct.” Kyungsoo answers “The pet shop was in Mueli, if I give the case over to them, they can get all the warrants without our captain knowing.”

“Who’s to say they aren’t dirty too?” Baekhyun asks. 

“They might be” Kyungsoo agrees “but it’s our only option.”


	12. The Final Chapter

It’s been a week since they gave the case over to the Mueli precinct and they haven’t gotten much information back. Obviously, it’s not their job to keep Kyungsoo and Baekhyun in the loop but it’s nerve-racking to not know what’s going on. 

“Any updates from the other precinct?” Baekhyun says walking into Kyungsoo’s office.

“As soon as I hear something, I’ll tell you.” Kyungsoo says looking up from his computer with a smile. 

“And what are we doing?” Baekhyun asks. 

“The captain gave me paperwork, a lot of it.” Kyungsoo frowns “I don’t think he likes me very much right now.”

“At least he thinks you’ve given up about the case.” Baekhyun says. 

“You can go home if you want, there’s really nothing for you to do” Kyungsoo says quietly.

“No way. We’re in this together, unofficial partners.” Baekhyun smiles “Plus there’s nothing at home for me either.”

Kyungsoo just smiles and laughs before handing Baekhyun a tablet so he can go through the files too. They work in almost complete silence for almost 5 whole seconds before Baekhyun starts talking again.

“Kyungsoo there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.” Baekhyun says. 

“About?” Kyungsoo says continuing his work. 

“Where I’m going after the case ends.” Baekhyun says seriously. 

Kyungsoo stops typing and turns his full attention to Baekhyun to prompt him to continue talking. 

“I really like living with Jihyo and her family.” Baekhyun starts “I’ve promised them that I wouldn’t stop talking to them no matter what. I think Nayeon and Chaeng sorta see me as an older brother and I do see them as my little sisters in a way. I-I guess what I’m saying is I don’t want to leave them.”

“So you want to keep living with them?” Kyungsoo asks with a look Baekhyun can’t place. 

“I would be ok with that but uh” Baekhyun says dancing around the subject “It’s not really my first choice.”

“What is your first choice?” Kyungsoo asks before noticing how scared Baekhyun looks “you can tell me, I promise I’ll be able to handle it.”

“I’d want to live with you” Baekhyun answers quickly. 

“That’s what you were nervous about?” Kyungsoo says leaning back in his chair, relieved. 

“Well yeah, it’s kind of a big deal.” Baekhyun says a little baffled by Kyungsoo’s reaction. 

“So is a promotion but it’s not something I’d be upset about” Kyungsoo smiles. 

“I really thought you’d think we were moving too fast or something” Baekhyun says still not quite getting Kyungsoo’s reaction. It's not that he'd want to do it right away, maybe in a month or two, but he still expected a larger reaction from Kyungsoo.

“Maybe but it beats the hell out of you moving to new LA” Kyungsoo answers. 

“You thought I’d leave?” Baekhyun asks with a smile “Why the hell would I do that?”

“So you could be an independent person” Kyungsoo explains “It’s not weird to think you’d want to be legally responsible for yourself.”

“It’s just what a piece of paper says” Baekhyun answers “I trust you not to abuse your power or anything.”

“Me?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“Who else?” Baekhyun cocks an eyebrow. 

Kyungsoo is about to respond before his cell starts ringing. 

“Detective Do” Kyungsoo answers before listening for a while, Baekhyun can’t hear anything but based on Kyungsoo’s face it’s important. Kyungsoo doesn’t say much more than the occasional “ok” before he finishes the call “Thank you for letting me know.” 

“They’re arresting the captain” Kyungsoo answers right after he hangs up the phone “They searched his apartment and found the records of the transactions. They’ve found more than enough evidence to convict him. They’re still getting everyone else in the operation but they’ll find them too.”

“That’s great!” Baekhyun smiles. 

“Well it will take a while for everything to be settled but all the humans that were abducted are being freed to live their lives however they chose to.” Kyungsoo smiles back “We just have to hope he doesn’t weasel his way out of being convicted but based on the evidence they have that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Perfect” Baekhyun smiles back “So does that mean we’re done with paperwork?”

“It’ll take them 5 hours to get here so no” Kyungsoo laughs “We’re not going to tip him off.”

“Ok fine but I’m going to do it really slowly.” Baekhyun says before getting back to his work. 

~=+•+=~

“Baek!” Chaeyoung yells as Baekhyun steps into the house. 

Baekhyun jumps a little in shock before laughing. 

“What’s up?” Baekhyun says as his heart tries to slow down to its regular rate. 

“I heard your captain got arrested” Chaeyoung says as Baekhyun takes off his shoes. 

“That just happened” Baekhyun says knitting his eyebrows together “How did you hear about it?”

“I have sources” Chaeyoung says not relieving anything “Why was he arrested?”

“I don’t think I can tell you that” Baekhyun says not certain about how much he can share about ongoing cases. 

“Oh come on you know it’s going to be all over the internet tomorrow anyways” Chaeyoung whines. 

“Yeah cause you’ll put it there” Baekhyun laughs. 

“I promise I won’t tell anyone” Chaeyoung begs “except Nayeon.”

“Just don’t tell your mom” Baekhyun says before walking into the kitchen to get a snack. 

“So you’ll tell me?” Chaeyoung asks. 

“Yeah fine” Baekhyun says before turning to face the teen girl “He was arrested because he’s in charge or at least an important member of the smuggling ring that abducted me.”

“Oh, shit” Chaeyoung swears. 

“Are you supposed to swear?” Baekhyun asks with a mischievous smile, Chaeyoung doesn’t say anything but based on her face, the answer is no. “Now that I have some blackmail, maybe you’ll finally start listening to me sometimes.”

“Nah” Chaeyoung laughs “it’s gonna take more than that.”

Baekhyun just laughs before taking another sip of his yogurt drink, he wouldn’t really expect (or want) Chaeng to listen to him anyway. 

“So is your case over now?” Chaeyoung asks, forcing a smile.

“Sort of” Baekhyun answers “I mean arresting a suspect doesn’t really conclude a case but they freed all the people and the smuggling ring will probably never recover.”

“So uh” Chaeyoung says looking away “Are you going to keep living here?”

“I won’t move out right away.” Baekhyun says sure about that “and just because I move out doesn’t mean I won’t see you guys.”

“Kyungsoo’s house is pretty close” Chaeyoung says still sounding unsure. 

“And you just assume I’m going to live with him?” Baekhyun teases trying to make Chaeyoung feel better. 

“Well duh, who else?” Chaeyoung says unknowingly quoting Baekhyun. Baekhyun smiles thinking about how great it’s been to live with them. 

“You know just because I’m moving out doesn’t mean I can’t come over, we can still have game nights. Baekhyun says “Cheer up Chaeng, I’m sure this isn’t the first time someone has moved out. It’ll be ok.”

“There’s never been anyone like you before.” Chaeyoung frowns “They’re always dealing with things and they just want to stay alone in their room and that’s fine but um. I just really like having you here. No one else buys me strawberries, not even mom. You’re the only one I’ve trust with my art. Nayeon only makes fun of me and mom likes everything I make. I need someone else. I don’t want you to leave.”

“We can still do that, I’m not going far and we can still text and holo-call.” Baekhyun smiles before inviting Chaeyoung for a hug that she seems to need “I’ll still have time for you guys, you can’t imagine how nice it’s been living here but I can’t stay forever.”

Chaeyoung doesn’t say anything but she just holds Baekhyun tighter. As they hug, they hear a lot of loud sounds from the front door before Nayeon and her girlfriend come into view, hand in hand giggling. 

“Oh, you guys are home?” Nayeon says looking surprised and embarrassed “Wait why are you hugging?”

“Baekhyun’s moving out” Chaeyoung mumbles sadly before letting go of Baekhyun.

“What?” Nayeon says a little louder than necessary. 

“Should I leave?” Jeongyeon asks feeling a bit out of place.

“No, stay I need someone to comfort me” Nayeon says before wrapping her hands around her girlfriend. 

“I’m not leaving right away” Baekhyun smiles “You guys are acting like it’s the end of the world but I’m just going to be living in another house.”

“So we’re still going to the Sunmi concert together?” Nayeon asks.

“And we can go strawberry picking?” Chaeyoung asks. 

“We can still do all of that.” Baekhyun smiles.

“And every Saturday you’ll come over for dinner?” Nayeon asks with a smile. 

“I feel like I’m going to be extorted even more now” Baekhyun laughs.

“Duh” Nayeon and Chaeyoung say at the same time. 

“I’ll come over for dinner and go with you guys to concerts and strawberries and anything else you can think of” Baekhyun smiles.

“Good” Nayeon smiles “So are you two planning on hanging out here? I hear there’s a nice new movie out.”

“Then you and Jeonyeon can go enjoy it.” Chaeyoung says in a teasing voice. 

“Dammit” Nayeon frowns “Ok come on babe.” 

~=+•+=~

_Epilogue_

_11 Month Later_

“Baekhyun?” Kyungsoo asks shaking Baekhyun lightly to wake him.

“5 more minutes” Baekhyun grumbles pulling his sheets over his head. 

“This is kind of important.” Kyungsoo insists “The hearing ended today.”

“What hearing?” Baekhyun mumbles into his pillow. 

“Your smuggling case. They’ve convicted my old captain.” Kyungsoo says “Him and everyone who was involved received their sentences. They won’t be getting out for a very very long time.”

“So it’s over?” Baekhyun says sitting up. 

“That is but not the Roulon art gallery robbery we’re working on so get out of bed” Kyungsoo says pulling the blanket off Baekhyun to get him to get out of the bed. 

“Hey!” Baekhyun says pulling his legs up to protect himself from the cold air. 

Baekhyun smirks for a second before thinking of a brilliant plan. Baekhyun gets up out of bed and slowly wraps his arms around Kyungsoo’s neck before pulling him in for a kiss. Kyungsoo responds by kissing him back slowly just as Baekhyun planned. Now all he has to do is pull Kyungsoo into the bed and-

“We still have to leave Baekhyun” Kyungsoo says pulling away “If we finish this case the captain might instate you as an official police officer, but not if we’re late.”

“Yifan said that about the last case” Baekhyun pouts. 

“Yeah but that was because he thought you’d finish the gun safety training in time.” Kyungsoo laughs. 

“There are so many buttons on that thing.” Baekhyun complains “I figured it out eventually.”

“On your third application” Kyungsoo says while getting dressed. 

“Third times the charm” Baekhyun smiles before getting dressed “Speaking of third times, the florist cancelled on us again.”

“What? Why?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“They found out I was human and you know how that goes, interspecies marriage is ‘unnatural’ etc.” Baekhyun says fiddling with his engagement band “but Chanyeol has a friend, a human non-judgemental friend, who owns a flower shop. Kim Jongdae.”

“Good, we'll book him after work.” Kyungsoo nods typing his tie “Did Chaeng finish the mural for the reception hall yet?”

“Not yet, she’s still working on it.” Baekhyun answers, tucking his shirt in. 

“It’s been a month.” Kyungsoo says giving Baekhyun a look “I would love to have her art at the wedding but we really need that mural ready _before_ we exchange our vows.”

“She’ll finish it soon. You know better than me how powerful gleams can be, let her enjoy herself.” Baekhyun smiles before kissing Kyungsoo lovingly. 

“Yeah yeah, so we’ll have a half-painted wall while she’s falling in love. I’m happy for her and sad for our wall.” Kyungsoo laughs before walking out of their bedroom.

“Wait” Baekhyun says grabbing Kyungsoo’s hand “I love you.”

“I love you too” Kyungsoo chuckles before leaning in to kiss his fiance “but we’re still going to be late.”

if you liked this you can check out the edit I made for it [here](https://www.instagram.com/p/B9DZno-Jay3/?igshid=1fc4p1368o1j3). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, the end! (I'm actually kinda sad about it) This fic was fun but hard to write, I wasn’t always sure where it was going but I worked it out in the end. Also, I found a way to include every Exo member that ever existed except Tao. Sorry, Tao. This probably could have been developed into a much longer, more detailed fic but I didn’t really feel like it so. Also yes Jeongyeon did actually gleam, it was exactly what Baekhyun thought.


End file.
